Costly requirements, not religion per se, drove religious communes’ survival advantage

Evidence

Baumard et al. define morality in terms of a naturally selected propensity for fairness. They elaborate on an evolutionary rationale along Golden Rule lines of quid pro quo, fairly standard since the pioneering works of Trivers (1971), Axelrod and Hamilton (1981), and Alexander (1987). For the authors, morality stems from an environmental adaptation that leads individuals to share costs and benefits of cooperation equally, developing into a “specific and non-instrumental preference for fairness … as a distinct ‘moral sense’” (sect. 4, para. 4). They argue that this “mutualistic” model of morality provides insight and unity in understanding now classic problems in the cross-cultural development of human morality, including unselfish behavior in economic games, cooperation with anonymous strangers, and taboo trade-offs that defy short-term utilitarian interests. — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 266 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Costly religious requirements directly explain group longevity in communes; Survivor bias distorts the study of religious success; Morality evolved as a propensity for fair cost-benefit sharing among cooperators. — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality: The…, 266

Related

• Cost commitment, not religion per se, drives group survival advantage (similarity 0.84)
• Morality evolved as a propensity for fair cost-benefit sharing among cooperators. (similarity 0.83)
• Costly religious requirements directly explain group longevity in communes (similarity 0.80)
• Communes’ costly member requirements predict group survival patterns (similarity 0.80)
• Costly religious requirements statistically explain why religious communes outlasted secular ones fourfold (similarity 0.80)
• Mutualistic cost-benefit logic may explain transcendent moral sentiment. (similarity 0.78)
• Costly requirements predict religious group longevity independent of other factors (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Costly religious requirements directly explain group longevity in communes #corroborates (0.85)
• Survivor bias distorts the study of religious success #complicates (0.80)
• Morality evolved as a propensity for fair cost-benefit sharing among cooperators. #corroborates (0.72) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 266