Gods are watching and so what? Moralistic supernatural punishment across 15 cultures

Theiss Bendixen; Aaron D. Lightner; Coren Apicella; Quentin Atkinson; Alexander Bolyanatz; Emma Cohen; Carla Handley; Joseph Henrich; Eva Kundtová Klocová; Carolyn Lesorogol; Sarah Mathew; Rita A. McNamara; Cristina Moya; Ara Norenzayan; Caitlyn Placek; Montserrat Soler; Tom Vardy; Jonathan Weigel; Aiyana K. Willard; Dimitris Xygalatas; Martin Lang; Benjamin Grant Purzycki

doi:10.1017/ehs.2023.15

Gods are watching and so what? Moralistic supernatural punishment across 15 cultures

Theiss Bendixen^*, Aaron D. Lightner, Coren Apicella, Quentin Atkinson, Alexander Bolyanatz, Emma Cohen, Carla Handley, Joseph Henrich, Eva Kundtová Klocová, Carolyn Lesorogol, Sarah Mathew, Rita A. McNamara, Cristina Moya, Ara Norenzayan, Caitlyn Placek, Montserrat Soler, Tom Vardy, Jonathan Weigel, Aiyana K. Willard, Dimitris XygalatasMartin Lang, Benjamin Grant Purzycki^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Culture and Society - Department of the Study of Religion

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Abstract

Psychological and cultural evolutionary accounts of human sociality propose that beliefs in punitive and monitoring gods that care about moral norms facilitate cooperation. While there is some evidence to suggest that belief in supernatural punishment and monitoring generally induce cooperative behaviour, the effect of a deity's explicitly postulated moral concerns on cooperation remains unclear. Here, we report a pre-registered set of analyses to assess whether perceiving a locally relevant deity as moralistic predicts cooperative play in two permutations of two economic games using data from up to 15 diverse field sites. Across games, results suggest that gods' moral concerns do not play a direct, cross-culturally reliable role in motivating cooperative behaviour. The study contributes substantially to the current literature by testing a central hypothesis in the evolutionary and cognitive science of religion with a large and culturally diverse dataset using behavioural and ethnographically rich methods.

Original language	English
Article number	e18
Journal	Evolutionary Human Sciences
Volume	5
Number of pages	15
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2023.15
Publication status	Published - May 2023

Keywords

Behavioural economics
cognitive anthropology
cultural evolutionary psychology
evolutionary and cognitive science of religion
free-list

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Bendixen, T., Lightner, A. D., Apicella, C., Atkinson, Q., Bolyanatz, A., Cohen, E., Handley, C., Henrich, J., Klocová, E. K., Lesorogol, C., Mathew, S., McNamara, R. A., Moya, C., Norenzayan, A., Placek, C., Soler, M., Vardy, T., Weigel, J., Willard, A. K., ... Purzycki, B. G. (2023). Gods are watching and so what? Moralistic supernatural punishment across 15 cultures. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 5, Article e18. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2023.15

@article{a2be83c10675485986127a4f7b0ae033,

title = "Gods are watching and so what? Moralistic supernatural punishment across 15 cultures",

abstract = "Psychological and cultural evolutionary accounts of human sociality propose that beliefs in punitive and monitoring gods that care about moral norms facilitate cooperation. While there is some evidence to suggest that belief in supernatural punishment and monitoring generally induce cooperative behaviour, the effect of a deity's explicitly postulated moral concerns on cooperation remains unclear. Here, we report a pre-registered set of analyses to assess whether perceiving a locally relevant deity as moralistic predicts cooperative play in two permutations of two economic games using data from up to 15 diverse field sites. Across games, results suggest that gods' moral concerns do not play a direct, cross-culturally reliable role in motivating cooperative behaviour. The study contributes substantially to the current literature by testing a central hypothesis in the evolutionary and cognitive science of religion with a large and culturally diverse dataset using behavioural and ethnographically rich methods.",

keywords = "Behavioural economics, cognitive anthropology, cultural evolutionary psychology, evolutionary and cognitive science of religion, free-list",

author = "Theiss Bendixen and Lightner, {Aaron D.} and Coren Apicella and Quentin Atkinson and Alexander Bolyanatz and Emma Cohen and Carla Handley and Joseph Henrich and Klocov{\'a}, {Eva Kundtov{\'a}} and Carolyn Lesorogol and Sarah Mathew and McNamara, {Rita A.} and Cristina Moya and Ara Norenzayan and Caitlyn Placek and Montserrat Soler and Tom Vardy and Jonathan Weigel and Willard, {Aiyana K.} and Dimitris Xygalatas and Martin Lang and Purzycki, {Benjamin Grant}",

year = "2023",

month = may,

doi = "10.1017/ehs.2023.15",

language = "English",

volume = "5",

journal = "Evolutionary Human Sciences",

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publisher = "Cambridge University Press",

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Bendixen, T, Lightner, AD, Apicella, C, Atkinson, Q, Bolyanatz, A, Cohen, E, Handley, C, Henrich, J, Klocová, EK, Lesorogol, C, Mathew, S, McNamara, RA, Moya, C, Norenzayan, A, Placek, C, Soler, M, Vardy, T, Weigel, J, Willard, AK, Xygalatas, D, Lang, M & Purzycki, BG 2023, 'Gods are watching and so what? Moralistic supernatural punishment across 15 cultures', Evolutionary Human Sciences, vol. 5, e18. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2023.15

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T1 - Gods are watching and so what? Moralistic supernatural punishment across 15 cultures

AU - Bendixen, Theiss

AU - Lightner, Aaron D.

AU - Apicella, Coren

AU - Atkinson, Quentin

AU - Bolyanatz, Alexander

AU - Cohen, Emma

AU - Handley, Carla

AU - Henrich, Joseph

AU - Klocová, Eva Kundtová

AU - Lesorogol, Carolyn

AU - Mathew, Sarah

AU - McNamara, Rita A.

AU - Moya, Cristina

AU - Norenzayan, Ara

AU - Placek, Caitlyn

AU - Soler, Montserrat

AU - Vardy, Tom

AU - Weigel, Jonathan

AU - Willard, Aiyana K.

AU - Xygalatas, Dimitris

AU - Lang, Martin

AU - Purzycki, Benjamin Grant

PY - 2023/5

Y1 - 2023/5

N2 - Psychological and cultural evolutionary accounts of human sociality propose that beliefs in punitive and monitoring gods that care about moral norms facilitate cooperation. While there is some evidence to suggest that belief in supernatural punishment and monitoring generally induce cooperative behaviour, the effect of a deity's explicitly postulated moral concerns on cooperation remains unclear. Here, we report a pre-registered set of analyses to assess whether perceiving a locally relevant deity as moralistic predicts cooperative play in two permutations of two economic games using data from up to 15 diverse field sites. Across games, results suggest that gods' moral concerns do not play a direct, cross-culturally reliable role in motivating cooperative behaviour. The study contributes substantially to the current literature by testing a central hypothesis in the evolutionary and cognitive science of religion with a large and culturally diverse dataset using behavioural and ethnographically rich methods.

AB - Psychological and cultural evolutionary accounts of human sociality propose that beliefs in punitive and monitoring gods that care about moral norms facilitate cooperation. While there is some evidence to suggest that belief in supernatural punishment and monitoring generally induce cooperative behaviour, the effect of a deity's explicitly postulated moral concerns on cooperation remains unclear. Here, we report a pre-registered set of analyses to assess whether perceiving a locally relevant deity as moralistic predicts cooperative play in two permutations of two economic games using data from up to 15 diverse field sites. Across games, results suggest that gods' moral concerns do not play a direct, cross-culturally reliable role in motivating cooperative behaviour. The study contributes substantially to the current literature by testing a central hypothesis in the evolutionary and cognitive science of religion with a large and culturally diverse dataset using behavioural and ethnographically rich methods.

KW - Behavioural economics

KW - cognitive anthropology

KW - cultural evolutionary psychology

KW - evolutionary and cognitive science of religion

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DO - 10.1017/ehs.2023.15

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AN - SCOPUS:85160825663

SN - 2513-843X

VL - 5

JO - Evolutionary Human Sciences

JF - Evolutionary Human Sciences

M1 - e18

ER -

Gods are watching and so what? Moralistic supernatural punishment across 15 cultures

Abstract

Keywords

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