Department of Psychology,University of Haifa,Haifa 3498838,
Behav Brain Sci. 2018 Jan;41:e68. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X17001996.
Singh places the understanding of shamanism within the cognitive/evolutionary psychology of religion but is then sidetracked by presenting unhelpful analogies. The concepts of "superstition" as a general term for religious rituals and of "superstitious learning" as a mechanism accounting for the creation of rituals in humans reflect an underestimation of the human imagination, which is guided by cognitive/evolutionary constraints. Mentalizing, hypervigilance in agent detection, and anthropomorphism explain the behaviors involved in religious illusions (or delusions).
辛格将萨满教的理解置于宗教认知/进化心理学中，但随后却被提出无益的类比所转移。“迷信”作为宗教仪式的统称的概念，以及“迷信学习”作为人类创造仪式的机制的概念，反映了对人类想象力的低估，而人类想象力是受认知/进化限制的。心理化、对代理检测的高度警惕以及拟人化解释了宗教幻觉（或妄想）所涉及的行为。
