Fear of god functioned historically as the sole trust mechanism among strangers

Evidence

In a society where the rule of law is weak, and overall levels of trust and cooperation among strangers are quite low (that’s indeed most people for most of history), credible signals of fearing a god are, and have been, the only game in town, and in those societies, it would be reasonable to rely on such religious badges as a trust cue. I say “religious badges,” to borrow a term from Richard Sosis, because in these societies, atheism is largely absent, and therefore the only available cue is the degree of credible religious commitment. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 254

Categorization

• XREF: Core to the reader’s fumi-e analysis: trampling publicly destroys the ‘religious badge’ and thus the partner-choice/reputation cue; echoes Sosis’s costly-signaling work and Baumard on credible commitment.
• DEFINE: Introduces the key concept of ‘religious badges’ as costly signals of credible commitment in low-trust settings.
• QUESTION: If atheism is absent in these societies, what cues differentiate credible from non-credible commitment — and what does that imply for a coerced trampler who was never a believer?