Supernatural punishment and individual social compliance across cultures

Religion, Brain and Behavior

Volumn 1, Issue 2, 2011, Pages 119-134

  Bourrat, Pierrick ^a,c   Atkinson, Quentin D ^a,b   Dunbar, Robin I M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND   (New Zealand)

^c UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY   (Australia)

Author keywords

Cooperation; Prosociality; Religion; SCCS; Supernatural beliefs; Supernatural punishment

Indexed keywords

EID: 85012520629     PISSN: 2153599X     EISSN: 21535981     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/2153599X.2011.598325     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. Alcorta, C.S., & Sosis, R. (2005). Ritual, emotion, and sacred symbols: The evolution of religion as an adaptive complex. Human Nature, 16, 323-359.
2. Alexander, R. (1987). The biology of moral systems. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
3. Atkinson, Q.D., & Bourrat, P. (2011). Beliefs about God, the afterlife and morality support the role of supernatural policing in human cooperation. Evolution and Human Behavior, 32, 41-49.
4. Atran, S. (2002). In gods we trust: The evolutionary landscape ofreligion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5. Barrett, J.L. (2000). Exploring the natural foundations of religion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 29-34.
6. Barrett, J.L. (2004). Why would anyone believe in God?. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
7. Bering, J.M. (2002). The existential theory of mind. Review of General Psychology, 6, 3-24.
8. Blackmore, S.J. (1999). The meme machine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
9. Bowie, F. (2008). Anthropology of religion. Religion Compass, 2, 862-874.
10. Boyer, P. (2001). Religion explained: The human instincts that fashion gods, spirits and ancestors. London: Basic Books.
11. Dawkins, R. (1976). The selfish gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
12. Dennett, D.C. (2006). Breaking the spell. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
13. Dunbar, R.I.M. (1999). Culture, honesty and the freerider problem. In R.I.M. Dunbar, C. Knight, & C. Power (Eds.), The evolution of culture (pp. 194-213). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
14. Dunbar, R.I.M. (2008). Mind the gap: or why humans aren't just great apes. Proceedings of the British Academy, 154, 403-423.
15. Dunbar, R.I.M. (2009). Mind the bonding gap: constraints on the evolution of hominin societies. In S. Shennan (Ed.), Pattern and process in cultural evolution (pp. 223-234). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
16. Guthrie, S. (1993). Faces in the clouds: a new theory of religion. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
17. Johnson, D.D.P (2005). God’s punishment and public goods: A test of the supernatural punishment hypothesis in 186 world cultures. Human Nature, 16, 410-446.
18. Johnson, D.D.P, & Bering, J. (2009). Hand of God, mind of man. In J. Schloss & M. J. Murray (Eds.), The believing primate: Scientific, philosophical, and theological reflections on the origin of religion (pp. 26-44). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
19. Johnson, D.D.P, & Kru ger, O. (2004). The good of wrath: Supernatural punishment. Political Theology, 5, 159-176.
20. Monsma, S.V. (2007). Religion and philanthropic giving and volunteering: Building blocks for civic responsibility. International Journal of Research on Religion, 3, 1-28.
21. Murdock, G. (1967). Ethnographic atlas. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
22. Murdock, G., & White, D. (1969). Standard cross-cultural sample. Ethnology, 9, 329-369.
23. Norenzayan, A., & Shariff, A.F. (2008). The origin and evolution of religious prosociality. Science, 322, 58-62.
24. Premack, D., & Woodruff, G. (1978). Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1, 515-526.
25. Pyysiainen, I., & Hauser, M. (2010). The origins of religion: evolved adaptation or by-product? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14, 104-109.
26. Rice, W (1989). Analyzing tables of statistical tests. Evolution, 43, 223-225.
27. Richerson, P.J., & Boyd, R. (1998). The evolution of human ultrasociality. In I. Irenaus-Eibesfeldt & F.K. Salter (Eds.), Indoctrinability, ideology, and warfare: Evolutionary perspectives (pp. 71-95). New York, NY: Berghahn Books.
28. Roes, F.L., & Raymond, M. (2003). Belief in moralizing gods. Evolution and Human Behavior, 24, 126-135.
29. Rossano, M.J. (2007). Supernaturalizing social life. Human Nature, 18, 272-294.
30. Ruffle, B.J., & Sosis, R. (2007). Does it pay to pray? Costly ritual and cooperation. The BE Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, 7, 1-37.
31. Snarey, J. (1996). The natural environment’s impact upon religious ethics: a cross-cultural study. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 35, 85-96.
32. Sosis, R., & Alcorta, C. (2003). Signaling, solidarity, and the sacred: The evolution of religious behavior. Evolutionary Anthropology, 12, 264-274.
33. Sosis, R., Kress, H.C., & Boster, J.S. (2007). Scars for war: evaluating alternative signaling explanations for cross-cultural variance in ritual costs. Evolution and Human Behavior, 28, 234-247.
34. Wilson, D.S. (2002). Darwins cathedral: Evolution, religion, and the nature of society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.