Z Hong
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 33359 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Z Hong |
| NOMBRES | Z |
| APELLIDO | Hong |
| FIRMA | HONG Z |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Macau |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5343-3008 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 27 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 48 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 27 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1999 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 5 |
The evolutionary-cognitive foundation and cultural persistence of menstrual taboos in human societies
The calendar in the body
Chance neglect in performance judgments
The logic of hot and cold
Hot-cold food classification systems offer a valuable window into how cultural knowledge is organized, transmitted, and revised. Drawing on ethnographic and survey data from a Uyghur community in southern Xinjiang, this study provides both a detailed descriptive account of local hot-cold food beliefs and an analysis of the cognitive and cultural dynamics that sustain them. While hot foods are generally viewed as health-promoting and cold foods as…
The Rhetoric of Disenchantment
This study presents the first large‐scale empirical analysis of how ghosts and spirits were debated during China's early twentieth‐century secular transformation. Using a novel dataset of over 2000 digitized texts—including newspapers, periodicals, and essays from 1890 to 1949—we combine close reading, AI‐assisted annotation, and statistical modeling to examine rhetorical strategies surrounding supernatural belief. We find a clear asymmetry: crit…
Instrumentality, empiricism, and rationality in Nuosu divination
Is religion just make-believe, or only for some Weird people
The Cognitive Foundations of Decline Narratives in Human Societies
Evidential Vulnerability of Religious Beliefs in the Context of Petitionary Prayers
Petitionary prayers—requests made to a deity for specific outcomes—are widely practiced across religious traditions. While their efficacy remains a subject of theological debate, they exhibit remarkable resilience to disconfirmation. In three pre‐registered studies—a field study in China and two global surveys via Prolific—we examined how religious believers (Christians, Muslims, local deity worshippers, and Hindus) update beliefs and behaviors i…
When Rituals Fail
Why do rituals persist in human societies despite their frequent and observable failures to produce intended outcomes? This paper advances a two-part argument to explain this resilience. First, at the individual level, I argue that belief in ritual efficacy is maintained through Bayesian-rational processes, where the invocation of auxiliary hypotheses absorbs disconfirming evidence and shields central beliefs from significant revision. Importantl…
Persuading the emperors
The study of rhetoric has a long history in the Western intellectual tradition. However, only minimal efforts have been made to rigorously examine the cultural evolution of various rhetorical strategies in argumentation over time. In this study, we harness the power of fully digitized Chinese dynastic history to systematically analyze how different rhetorical strategies were used to persuade superiors throughout the past two millennia. By leverag…
A need to better understand the evolutionary process of beliefs about gods’ concerns
AcknowledgementI thank Andrew Buskell for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of this commentary.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)
The Cultural Evolution of Games of Chance
Chance-based gambling has been a recurrent cultural activity throughout history and across many diverse human societies. In this paper, I combine quantitative and qualitative data and present a cultural evolutionary framework to explain why the odds in games of chance in premodern China appeared "designed" to ensure a moderate yet favorable house advantage. This is especially intriguing since extensive research in the history of probability has s…
Evolving payoff currencies through the construction of causal theories
Payoff-biased cultural learning has been extensively discussed in the literature on cultural evolution, but where do payoff currencies come from in the first place? Are they products of genetic or cultural evolution? Here we present a simulation model to explore the possibility of novel payoff currencies emerging through a process of theory construction, where agents come up with "channels" via which different cultural traits contribute to some u…
The cognitive origin and cultural evolution of taboos in human societies
Why do human societies have so many taboos, defined here as culturally prohibited activities? In this article, I offer a naturalistic account of the origin and transmission of taboos from an evolutionary anthropological perspective. Drawing from the extensive literature in cognitive science and cultural evolution, I argue that taboos may arise from our tendency to retrospectively attribute causes to misfortunes due to a deterministic worldview, a…
Magic and Empiricism in Early Chinese Rainmaking
Ritual protocols aimed at rainmaking have been a recurrent sociocultural phenomenon across societies and throughout history. Given the fact that such protocols were likely entirely ineffective, why did they repeatedly emerge and persist, sometimes over millennia, even in populations with writing and recordkeeping? To address this puzzle, many scholars have argued that these protocols were not instrumental at all and that their practitioners were …
A Cultural Species and its Cognitive Phenotypes
Affordable Rental Housing for the Urban Seasonal Migrants in India
Bhutan is an inland country in the Himalayan region of South-central Asia, and is known for its unique culture and vernacular architecture.Vernacular architecture of Bhutan reflects its rich cultural heritage, religious beliefs, and historical significance and the natural setting.This paper examines the unique attributes of vernacular architecture of Bhutan and how the Government of Bhutan has gainfully utilized it for promoting the unique identi…
The Evolution of Inclusive Folk-Biological Labels and the Cultural Maintenance of Meaning
The Cultural Evolution of Medical Technologies
The psychology and social dynamics of fetal sex prognostication in China
Fetal sex prognostication has been a common practice in many human societies, yet most of the prognosticative methods do not perform better than chance. Why do these ineffective prognostication practices recur across societies and persist for long periods of time? In this article, we use historical texts of four different genres in traditional China (oracle bone inscriptions, dynastic history, encyclopedia, and local gazetteers) to examine the so…
The Population Dynamics of the Placebo Effect and Its Role in the Evolution of Medical Technology
A cognitive account of manipulative sympathetic magic
Frazer’s theory of sympathetic magic has been extremely influential in both anthropology and comparative religion, yet the manipulative aspect has not been adequately theorized. In this paper, I formalize sympathetic magical action and offer a naturalistic explanation of manipulative sympathetic magic by attributing it to a combination of environmental regularities (i.e., things that are similar and/or physically proximate tend to co-vary) and hu…
Combining Conformist and Payoff Bias in Cultural Evolution
Ghosts, Divination, and Magic among the Nuosu
The Cultural Evolution of Epistemic Practices
Magic and Empiricism in Early Chinese Rainmaking
Ritual protocols aimed at rainmaking have been a recurrent sociocultural phenomenon across societies and throughout history. Given the fact that such protocols were likely entirely ineffective, why did they repeatedly emerge and persist, sometimes over millennia, even in populations with writing and recordkeeping? To address this puzzle, many scholars have argued that these protocols were not instrumental at all and that their practitioners were …
Ghosts, Divination, and Magic among the Nuosu
The cognitive origin and cultural evolution of taboos in human societies
Why do human societies have so many taboos, defined here as culturally prohibited activities? In this article, I offer a naturalistic account of the origin and transmission of taboos from an evolutionary anthropological perspective. Drawing from the extensive literature in cognitive science and cultural evolution, I argue that taboos may arise from our tendency to retrospectively attribute causes to misfortunes due to a deterministic worldview, a…
The psychology and social dynamics of fetal sex prognostication in China
Fetal sex prognostication has been a common practice in many human societies, yet most of the prognosticative methods do not perform better than chance. Why do these ineffective prognostication practices recur across societies and persist for long periods of time? In this article, we use historical texts of four different genres in traditional China (oracle bone inscriptions, dynastic history, encyclopedia, and local gazetteers) to examine the so…
Evolving payoff currencies through the construction of causal theories
Payoff-biased cultural learning has been extensively discussed in the literature on cultural evolution, but where do payoff currencies come from in the first place? Are they products of genetic or cultural evolution? Here we present a simulation model to explore the possibility of novel payoff currencies emerging through a process of theory construction, where agents come up with "channels" via which different cultural traits contribute to some u…
Combining Conformist and Payoff Bias in Cultural Evolution
When Rituals Fail
Why do rituals persist in human societies despite their frequent and observable failures to produce intended outcomes? This paper advances a two-part argument to explain this resilience. First, at the individual level, I argue that belief in ritual efficacy is maintained through Bayesian-rational processes, where the invocation of auxiliary hypotheses absorbs disconfirming evidence and shields central beliefs from significant revision. Importantl…
The Cultural Evolution of Medical Technologies
Individual Leaders and the Development of Sino-American Rela tions
The Cultural Evolution of Epistemic Practices
The Population Dynamics of the Placebo Effect and Its Role in the Evolution of Medical Technology
A cognitive account of manipulative sympathetic magic
Frazer’s theory of sympathetic magic has been extremely influential in both anthropology and comparative religion, yet the manipulative aspect has not been adequately theorized. In this paper, I formalize sympathetic magical action and offer a naturalistic explanation of manipulative sympathetic magic by attributing it to a combination of environmental regularities (i.e., things that are similar and/or physically proximate tend to co-vary) and hu…
Combining Conformist and Payoff Bias in Cultural Evolution
Ghosts, Divination, and Magic among the Nuosu
A Cultural Species and its Cognitive Phenotypes
Affordable Rental Housing for the Urban Seasonal Migrants in India
Bhutan is an inland country in the Himalayan region of South-central Asia, and is known for its unique culture and vernacular architecture.Vernacular architecture of Bhutan reflects its rich cultural heritage, religious beliefs, and historical significance and the natural setting.This paper examines the unique attributes of vernacular architecture of Bhutan and how the Government of Bhutan has gainfully utilized it for promoting the unique identi…
The Evolution of Inclusive Folk-Biological Labels and the Cultural Maintenance of Meaning
The Cultural Evolution of Medical Technologies
The psychology and social dynamics of fetal sex prognostication in China
Fetal sex prognostication has been a common practice in many human societies, yet most of the prognosticative methods do not perform better than chance. Why do these ineffective prognostication practices recur across societies and persist for long periods of time? In this article, we use historical texts of four different genres in traditional China (oracle bone inscriptions, dynastic history, encyclopedia, and local gazetteers) to examine the so…
Persuading the emperors
The study of rhetoric has a long history in the Western intellectual tradition. However, only minimal efforts have been made to rigorously examine the cultural evolution of various rhetorical strategies in argumentation over time. In this study, we harness the power of fully digitized Chinese dynastic history to systematically analyze how different rhetorical strategies were used to persuade superiors throughout the past two millennia. By leverag…
A need to better understand the evolutionary process of beliefs about gods’ concerns
AcknowledgementI thank Andrew Buskell for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of this commentary.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)
The Cultural Evolution of Games of Chance
Chance-based gambling has been a recurrent cultural activity throughout history and across many diverse human societies. In this paper, I combine quantitative and qualitative data and present a cultural evolutionary framework to explain why the odds in games of chance in premodern China appeared "designed" to ensure a moderate yet favorable house advantage. This is especially intriguing since extensive research in the history of probability has s…
Evolving payoff currencies through the construction of causal theories
Payoff-biased cultural learning has been extensively discussed in the literature on cultural evolution, but where do payoff currencies come from in the first place? Are they products of genetic or cultural evolution? Here we present a simulation model to explore the possibility of novel payoff currencies emerging through a process of theory construction, where agents come up with "channels" via which different cultural traits contribute to some u…
The cognitive origin and cultural evolution of taboos in human societies
Why do human societies have so many taboos, defined here as culturally prohibited activities? In this article, I offer a naturalistic account of the origin and transmission of taboos from an evolutionary anthropological perspective. Drawing from the extensive literature in cognitive science and cultural evolution, I argue that taboos may arise from our tendency to retrospectively attribute causes to misfortunes due to a deterministic worldview, a…
Magic and Empiricism in Early Chinese Rainmaking
Ritual protocols aimed at rainmaking have been a recurrent sociocultural phenomenon across societies and throughout history. Given the fact that such protocols were likely entirely ineffective, why did they repeatedly emerge and persist, sometimes over millennia, even in populations with writing and recordkeeping? To address this puzzle, many scholars have argued that these protocols were not instrumental at all and that their practitioners were …
Instrumentality, empiricism, and rationality in Nuosu divination
Is religion just make-believe, or only for some Weird people
The Cognitive Foundations of Decline Narratives in Human Societies
Evidential Vulnerability of Religious Beliefs in the Context of Petitionary Prayers
Petitionary prayers—requests made to a deity for specific outcomes—are widely practiced across religious traditions. While their efficacy remains a subject of theological debate, they exhibit remarkable resilience to disconfirmation. In three pre‐registered studies—a field study in China and two global surveys via Prolific—we examined how religious believers (Christians, Muslims, local deity worshippers, and Hindus) update beliefs and behaviors i…
When Rituals Fail
Why do rituals persist in human societies despite their frequent and observable failures to produce intended outcomes? This paper advances a two-part argument to explain this resilience. First, at the individual level, I argue that belief in ritual efficacy is maintained through Bayesian-rational processes, where the invocation of auxiliary hypotheses absorbs disconfirming evidence and shields central beliefs from significant revision. Importantl…
The evolutionary-cognitive foundation and cultural persistence of menstrual taboos in human societies
The calendar in the body
Chance neglect in performance judgments
Psychology (15 obras) · Epistemology (11 obras) · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (10 obras) · Philosophy (10 obras) · Sociology (10 obras) · Cognition (9 obras) · Cultural Differences and Values (8 obras) · Social Psychology (8 obras) · Language and cultural evolution (7 obras) · Philosophy (6 obras)