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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. Gods are watching and so what? Moralistic supernatural punishment across 15 cultures. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2023; 5:e18. [PMID: 37587943 PMCID: PMC10426076 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2023.15] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2023] [Revised: 04/28/2023] [Accepted: 05/01/2023] [Indexed: 08/18/2023] Open
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.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Coren Apicella
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Quentin Atkinson
- Department of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | | | - Emma Cohen
- Wadham College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | | | - Joseph Henrich
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | | | | | | | - Rita A. McNamara
- School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
| | - Cristina Moya
- Department of Anthropology, University of California Davis, Davis, California, USA
| | - Ara Norenzayan
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Caitlyn Placek
- Department of Anthropology, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA
| | - Montserrat Soler
- Ob/Gyn and Women's Health Institute Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
| | - Tom Vardy
- Department of International Development, London School of Economics, London, UK
| | - Jonathan Weigel
- Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
| | | | - Dimitris Xygalatas
- Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA
| | - Martin Lang
- LEVYNA, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
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Lightner AD, Bendixen T, Purzycki BG. Moralistic supernatural punishment is probably not associated with social complexity. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2022.10.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Frankenhuis WE, Amir D. What is the expected human childhood? Insights from evolutionary anthropology. Dev Psychopathol 2022; 34:473-497. [PMID: 34924077 DOI: 10.1017/s0954579421001401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
In psychological research, there are often assumptions about the conditions that children expect to encounter during their development. These assumptions shape prevailing ideas about the experiences that children are capable of adjusting to, and whether their responses are viewed as impairments or adaptations. Specifically, the expected childhood is often depicted as nurturing and safe, and characterized by high levels of caregiver investment. Here, we synthesize evidence from history, anthropology, and primatology to challenge this view. We integrate the findings of systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and cross-cultural investigations on three forms of threat (infanticide, violent conflict, and predation) and three forms of deprivation (social, cognitive, and nutritional) that children have faced throughout human evolution. Our results show that mean levels of threat and deprivation were higher than is typical in industrialized societies, and that our species has experienced much variation in the levels of these adversities across space and time. These conditions likely favored a high degree of phenotypic plasticity, or the ability to tailor development to different conditions. This body of evidence has implications for recognizing developmental adaptations to adversity, for cultural variation in responses to adverse experiences, and for definitions of adversity and deprivation as deviation from the expected human childhood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Willem E Frankenhuis
- Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
- Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, Germany
| | - Dorsa Amir
- Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, USA
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Fitouchi L, Singh M. Supernatural punishment beliefs as cognitively compelling tools of social control. Curr Opin Psychol 2021; 44:252-257. [PMID: 34752999 DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.09.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2021] [Revised: 09/24/2021] [Accepted: 09/28/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Why do humans develop beliefs in supernatural entities that punish uncooperative behaviors? Leading hypotheses maintain that these beliefs are widespread because they facilitate cooperation, allowing their groups to outcompete others in intergroup competition. Focusing on within-group interactions, we present a model in which people strategically endorse supernatural punishment beliefs as intuitive tools of social control to manipulate others into cooperating. Others accept these beliefs, meanwhile, because they are made compelling by various cognitive biases: they appear to provide information about why misfortune occurs; they appeal to intuitions about immanent justice; they contain threatening information; and they allow believers to signal their trustworthiness. Explaining supernatural beliefs requires considering both motivations to invest in their endorsement and the reasons others adopt them.
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Affiliation(s)
- Léo Fitouchi
- Institut Jean Nicod, Départment D'études Cognitives, ENS, Paris, France.
| | - Manvir Singh
- Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
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Cronk L, Aktipis A. Design principles for risk-pooling systems. Nat Hum Behav 2021; 5:825-833. [PMID: 34045721 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01121-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2020] [Accepted: 04/20/2021] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Abstract
In times of crisis, risk pooling can enhance the resilience of individuals, households and communities. Risk-pooling systems are most effective when their participants adhere to several principles: (1) participants should agree that the pool is for needs that arise unpredictably, not for routine, predictable needs; (2) giving to those in need should not create an obligation for them to repay; (3) participants should not be expected to help others until they have taken care of their own needs; (4) participants should have a consensus about what constitutes need; (5) resources should be either naturally visible or made visible to reduce cheating; (6) individuals should be able to decide which partners to accept; and (7) the scale of the network should be large enough to cover the scale of risks. We discuss the cultural and evolutionary foundations of risk-pooling systems, their vulnerabilities and their relationship to commercial insurance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lee Cronk
- Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
| | - Athena Aktipis
- Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
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Cronk L, Guevara Beltrán D, Mercado DL, Aktipis A. "A Solidarity-Type World": Need-Based Helping among Ranchers in the Southwestern United States. HUMAN NATURE (HAWTHORNE, N.Y.) 2021; 32:482-508. [PMID: 34240310 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-021-09406-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/03/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
To better understand risk management and mutual aid among American ranchers, we interviewed and mailed a survey to ranchers in Hidalgo County, New Mexico, and Cochise County, Arizona, focusing on two questions: (1) When do ranchers expect repayment for the help they provide others? (2) What determines ranchers' degrees of involvement in networks of mutual aid, which they refer to as "neighboring"? When needs arise due to unpredictable events, such as injuries, most ranchers reported not expecting to be paid back for the help they provide. When help is provided for something that follows a known schedule or that can be scheduled, such as branding, most ranchers did expect something in return for the help they provide. This pattern makes sense in light of computational modeling that shows that transfers to those in need without expectations of repayment pool risk more effectively than transfers that create debt. Ranchers reported helping other ranchers more often when they belonged to more religious and civic organizations, when they owned larger ranches, when they relied less on ranch vs. other income, and when they had more relatives in the area. Operators of midsize ranches reported helping other ranchers more frequently than did those on smaller and larger ranches. None of our independent variables predicted how many times ranchers reported receiving help from other ranchers. Although ranch culture in the American West is often characterized by an ethic of individualism and independence, our study suggests that this ethic stands alongside an ethic of mutual aid during times of need.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lee Cronk
- Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901-1414, USA.
| | | | - Denise Laya Mercado
- Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901-1414, USA
| | - Athena Aktipis
- Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
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Townsend C, Aktipis A, Balliet D, Cronk L. Erratum: Generosity among the Ik of Uganda - Corrigendum. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2021; 3:e7. [PMID: 37588533 PMCID: PMC10427293 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2021.3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2020.22.].
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