Cultural Transmission and Acquisition in the Development of Religious Thinking

Many religious concepts, such as belief in the existence of God, cannot be learned through first-hand observation alone. How do young learners come to develop a sense of belief in religion and the supernatural? We take a social-interactionist perspective to this question and argue that children’s belief is dependent on the particular cultural input to which they are exposed in their environment. We highlight research showing the impact of learning via interaction with family, peers, and the larger environment. Within these contexts, children learn both via the verbal testimonial information to which they are exposed, as well as through participating in rituals, and imitating other cultural group members. We indicate specific mechanisms that aid in the transmission of belief such as the credibility of the informant, the quality of the explanation posed to the child, and the saliency of the ritual. Such mechanisms can shed light on important ways in which to present novel information to learners across the lifespan.