Costly signaling predicts universal religious displays while CRED allows cultural variability

Evidence

A second difference between CREDs and costly signals is that costly signals are thought to be the product of genetic evolution, which suggests that costly behaviors should be a universal feature of religions. The CRED model, on the other hand, is a cultural transmission model and does not require, or predict, such universality. If many, or even some, religious behaviors are extravagant displays, that pattern would be consistent with a cultural evolutionary framework. Genetic accounts, on the other hand, although certainly not incompatible with cultural variability, are more consistent with the idea that these behaviors are universally shared by religions. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 342

Categorization

• XREF: The universality-vs-variability contrast helps adjudicate whether fumi-e apostasy rituals reflect genetically universal signaling logic or culturally transmitted norms tuned to Japanese settings.