As groups grow, moral enforcement and religion become intertwined.

Evidence

All of this evidence brings us to a striking conclusion: over time and as groups gain in size, morality and religion move from disconnected to increasingly intertwined. As groups expand, Big Gods emerge, who demand sincere commitment, micromanage humans round the clock, punish transgressions, and reward good behavior. Elaborate, repetitious rituals that coordinate and validate the group’s supernatural outlook also become more common. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 428

Categorization

• XREF: Directly supports the reader’s core premise: an omniscient Big God (Norenzayan’s mechanism) emerges with group scale, exactly the mechanism being tested against Rodrigues’s perceived divine gaze in the Japanese setting.