Beliefs about God, the afterlife and morality support the role of supernatural policing in human cooperation

Evolution and Human Behavior

Volumn 32, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 41-49

  Atkinson, Quentin D ^a,b   Bourrat, Pierrick ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND   (New Zealand)

Author keywords

Afterlife; Cooperation; Prosociality; Religion; Supernatural beliefs; Supernatural monitoring; Supernatural punishment

Indexed keywords

EID: 78649964354     PISSN: 10905138     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.07.008     Document Type: Article

References (58)

1. Alcorta C.S., Sosis R. Ritual, emotion, and sacred symbols the evolution of religion as an adaptive complex. Human Nature 2005, 16:323-359.
2. Atran S. In gods we trust: The evolutionary landscape of religion 2002, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
3. Barrett J.L. Exploring the natural foundations of religion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2000, 4:29-34.
4. Bateson M., Nettle D., Roberts G. Cues of being watched enhance cooperation in a real-world setting. Biology Letters 2006, 2:412.
5. Bering J.M. The folk psychology of souls. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2006, 29:453-462.
6. Bering J.M., McLeod K., Shackelford T.K. Reasoning about dead agents reveals possible adaptive trends. Human Nature 2005, 16:360-381.
7. Blackmore S.J. The meme machine 1999, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
8. Boyd R., Gintis H., Bowles S., Richerson P.J. The evolution of altruistic punishment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2003, 100:3531.
9. Boyer P. Religion explained: The human instincts that fashion gods, spirits and ancestors 2001, Basic Books, London.
10. Burris C.T., Navara G.S. Morality play, or playing morality? Intrinsic religious orientation and socially desirable responding. Self and Identity 2002, 1:67-76.
11. Dawkins R. The selfish gene 1976, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
12. Dawkins R. The God delusion 2006, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston.
13. Dennett D.C. Breaking the spell 2006, Penguin Books, London.
14. Dunbar R.I.M. Mind the bonding gap: Constraints on the evolution of hominin societies. Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution 2009, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. S. Shennan (Ed.).
15. Edwards A. The relationship between the judged desirability of a trait and the probability that the trait will be endorsed. Journal of Applied Psychology 1953, 37:90-93.
16. Fehr E., Fischbacher U. The nature of human altruism: Proximate patterns and evolutionary origins. Nature 2003, 425:785-791.
17. Fehr E., Gachter S. Altruistic punishment in humans. Nature 2002, 415:137-140.
18. Fehr E., Schneider F. Eyes are on us, but nobody cares: Are eye cues relevant for strong reciprocity?. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 2009, 277:1315-1323.
19. Gintis H., Bowles S., Boyd R., Fehr E. Explaining altruistic behavior in humans. Evolution and Human Behavior 2003, 24:153-172.
20. Guthrie S.E. Faces in the clouds: A new theory of religion 1993, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
21. Haley K.J., Fessler D.M.T. Nobody's watching? Subtle cues affect generosity in an anonymous economic game. Evolution and Human Behavior 2005, 26:245-256.
22. Henrich J., Boyd R. Why people punish defectors. Weak conformist transmission can stabilize costly enforcement of norms in cooperative dilemmas. Journal of Theoretical Biology 2001, 208:79-89.
23. Henrich J., Boyd R., Bowles S., Camerer C., Fehr E., Gintis H., et al. In search of homo economicus: Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies. The American Economic Review 2001, 91:73-78.
24. Henrich J., Ensminger J., McElreath R., Barr A., Barrett C., Bolyanatz A., et al. Markets, religion, community size, and the evolution of fairness and punishment. Science 2010, 327:1480-1484.
25. Henrich J., Heine S.J., Norenzayan A. The weirdest people in the world. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2010, 33:1-75.
26. Irons W. In our own self image: The evolution of morality, deception, and religion. Skeptic 1996, 4:50-61.
27. Irons W. Morality as an evolved adaptation. Investigating the biological foundations of human morality 1996, 1-33. Edwin Mellon Press, Lewiston. J.P. Hurd (Ed.).
28. Johnson D., Bering J. Hand of God, mind of man. Punishment and cognition in the evolution of cooperation. Evolutionary Psychology 2006, 4:219-233.
29. Johnson D.D.P. God's punishment and public goods: A test of the supernatural punishment hypothesis in 186 world cultures. Human Nature 2005, 16:410-446.
30. Johnson D.D.P., Krüger O. The good of wrath: supernatural punishment. Political Theology 2004, 5:159-176.
31. Leary M.R., Kowalski R.M. Impression management - A literature review and 2-component model. Psychology Bulletin 1990, 107:34-47.
32. Leak G.K., Fish S. Religious orientation, impression management and self-deception: Toward a clarification of the link between religiosity and social desirability. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 1989, 28:355-359.
33. Lotem A., Fishman M.A., Stone L. Evolution of cooperation between individuals. Nature 1999, 400:226-227.
34. Mifune N., Hashimoto H., Yamagishi T. Altruism toward in-group members as a reputation mechanism. Evolution and Human Behavior 2010, 31:109-117.
35. Milinski M., Semmann D., Krambeck H.J. Reputation helps solve the 'tragedy of the commons'. Nature 2002, 415:424-426.
36. Monsma S.V. Religion and philanthropic giving and volunteering: Building blocks for civic responsibility. IJRR 2007, 3:1.
37. Norenzayan A., Shariff A.F. The origin and evolution of religious prosociality. Science 2008, 322:58.
38. Nowak M.A., Sigmund K. The dynamics of indirect reciprocity. Journal of Theoretical Biology 1998, 194:561-574.
39. Nowak M.A., Sigmund K. Evolution of indirect reciprocity by image scoring. Nature 1998, 393:573-577.
40. Pyysiäinen I., Hauser M. The origins of religion: Evolved adaptation or by-product?. Trends in Cognitive Science 2010, 14(3):104-109.
41. Rand D.G., Dreber A., Ellingsen T., Fudenberg D., Nowak M.A. Positive interactions promote public cooperation. Science 2009, 325:1272.
42. Richerson P.J., Boyd R. The evolution of human ultra-sociality. Indoctrinability, Ideology, and Warfare: Evolutionary Perspectives 1998, 71-95. Berghahn Books, New York. I. Eibl-Eibisfeldt, F. Salter (Eds.).
43. Rigdon M., Ishii K., Watabe M., Kitayama S. Minimal social cues in the dictator game. Journal of Economic Psychology 2009, 30:358-367.
44. Roes F.L., Raymond M. Belief in moralizing gods. Evolution and Human Behavior 2003, 24:126-135.
45. Rossano M.J. Supernaturalizing social life. Human Nature 2007, 18:272-294.
46. Ruffle B.J., Sosis R. Does it pay to pray? Costly ritual and cooperation. The BE Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy 2007, 7:1-37.
47. Shariff A.F., Norenzayan A. God is watching you. Psychological Science 2007, 18:803-809.
48. Snarey J. The natural environment's impact upon religious ethics: A cross-cultural study. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 1996, 35:85-96.
49. Sosis R., Alcorta C. Signaling, solidarity, and the sacred: The evolution of religious behavior. Evolutionary Anthropology 2003, 12:264-274.
50. Sosis R., Bressler E.R. Cooperation and commune longevity: A test of the costly signaling theory of religion. Cross-Cultural Research 2003, 37:211-239.
51. Sosis R., Kress H.C., Boster J.S. Scars for war: Evaluating alternative signaling explanations for cross-cultural variance in ritual costs. Evolution and Human Behavior 2007, 28:234-247.
52. Sosis R., Ruffle B.J. Religious ritual and cooperation: Testing for a relationship on Israeli religious and secular Kibbutzim 1. Current Anthropology 2003, 44:713-722.
53. Stark R. Gods, rituals, and the moral order. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 2001, 40:619-636.
54. Swanson G.E. The birth of the gods: The origin of primitive beliefs 1960, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.
55. Tan J.H.W., Vogel C. Religion and trust: An experimental study. Journal of Economic Psychology 2008, 29:832-848.
56. Trimble D.E. The religious orientation scale: Review and meta-analysis of social desirability effects. Educational and Psychological Measurement 1997, 57:970-986.
57. Wilson D.S. Darwin's cathedral: Evolution, religion, and the nature of society 2002, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
58. WVS World Value Survey Association OFFICIAL AGGREGATE 1981-2008, http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org.