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The Agential View of Misfortune.

Ronald J Planer1,2, Kim Sterelny3

  • 1School of Liberal Arts, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia. rplaner@uow.edu.au.

Human Nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.)
|March 20, 2024
PubMed
Summary

Many societies attribute misfortune to malevolent occult forces. This study explores the evolutionary puzzle of the agential view of misfortune, suggesting it benefits occult specialists but remains costly and unexplained.

Keywords:
Cultural evolutionHyper-vigilanceMagicShamanismSorceryWitchcraft

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