Henrich, JosephHong, Ze2022-06-0720222022-04-182022-05Hong, Ze. 2022. The Evolution of Ineffective Technologies in Human Societies – A Cognitive and Cultural Evolutionary Perspective. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.29067457https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37371929Throughout history and across human societies, people practiced magic, divination, and other objectively ineffective technologies. Why would people engage in these ineffective and often costly practices? In this dissertation, I draw extensively from the literature of cognitive science and cultural evolution, and provide a theoretical framework for understanding the nature of ineffective technologies as well as empirical data (historical and ethnographic) that highlight some of the factors that contribute to their persistence. Briefly, I suggest that individuals often entertain much uncertainty in the efficacy of these technologies – they are aware that technological practices do not “work” 100% of the time, yet may be willing to try them as a result of rudimentary cost-benefit analysis. Importantly, the belief component is affected by both biases in cultural transmission (e.g., under-reporting of failures) and biases in individual cognition (lack of active comparison between perceived efficacy and chance). I also discuss the epistemic difference between traditional and modern societies, and why individuals in the latter have access to more genuinely effective technologies.application/pdfenCognitionCulturel EvolutionDivinationMagicModelingBehavioral sciencesBiologyAncient historyThesis or Dissertation2022-06-070000-0002-5343-3008