Widespread religious disbelief represents a key testing ground for theories of religion. We evaluated the predictions of three prominent theoretical approaches—secularization, cognitive byproduct, and dual inheritance—in a nationally representative (United States, N = 1,417) data set with preregistered analyses and found considerable support for the dual inheritance perspective. Of key predictors of religious disbelief, witnessing fewer credible cultural cues of religious commitment was the most potent, β = .28, followed distantly by reflective cognitive style, β = .13, and less advanced mentalizing, β = .05. Low cultural exposure predicted about 90% higher odds of atheism than did peak cognitive reflection, and cognitive reflection only predicted disbelief among those relatively low in cultural exposure to religion. This highlights the utility of considering both evolved intuitions and transmitted culture and emphasizes the dual roles of content- and context-biased social learning in the cultural transmission of disbelief (preprint https://psyarxiv.com/e29rt/).

广泛的宗教信仰是宗教理论的一个关键试验场。我们评估了三位著名的理论方法，世俗化，认知副产品，双重的预测继承，在具有全国代表性的（美国，ñ= 1,417）具有预注册分析的数据集，并为双重继承视角提供了相当大的支持。在宗教信仰怀疑的主要预测因素中，见证宗教信仰的可信文化线索较少是最有效的，β= 0.28，其次是反思性的认知风格，β= .13，以及较弱的心理思维，β= .05。文化程度低的人预测的无神论几率比最高的认知反射率高90％，而认知反射只预测那些文化程度较低的宗教信仰者的无信仰感。这突显了同时考虑进化的直觉和传播的文化的效用，并强调了内容和上下文偏向的社会学习在难以置信的文化传播中的双重作用（预印本https://psyarxiv.com/e29rt/）。