Gods and governments may be interchangeable enforcers of cooperation

Evidence

We know that supernatural monitoring is far from the only source of prosociality in the world. Secular authorities have joined (and perhaps supplanted) watchful gods as guarantors of cooperation in some places, with interesting psychological consequences that I discuss in more detail in chapter 10. There is extensive evidence for this claim from the field, and preliminary evidence from the lab. In the field, economists and sociologists consistently find that people living in societies with strong secular institutions, compared to those living in societies with weak institutions, are far more trusting of other citizens, more prosocial, and more likely to punish freeriders. In the laboratory, we have seen in chapter 3 that reminders of secular concepts (for example, civic, jury, police) are as effective as reminders of a watchful God in promoting generous behavior among Canadians. This suggests an intriguing dynamic, that when it comes to enforcing cooperation and trust, gods and governments may be interchangeable. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 302

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The substitution claim—that mere reminders of civic/police/jury concepts replicate Big God’s prosocial priming—has deep implications for secularization theory and for the novel’s fumi-e logic.
• XREF: Connect to the reader’s stated purpose: if secular monitoring substitutes for divine, the fumi-e trampling inverts this by making one system actively destroy the other’s credibility. — connects to: Small transparent groups need no moralizing gods to sustain cooperation — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 409; Big Gods and costly rituals coevolved to enhance cooperation and outcompete rivals; Resource conflict, large groups, and watchful gods co-occur across world societies. (+8 more)
• QUESTION: Does this imply that societies with strong secular institutions will see Big-God religiosity wither, and is that prediction testable against, say, US vs Scandinavian religiosity with strong rule of law in both?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 302

Broader Connections

• Secular welfare states displaced religion by replicating its cooperative functions #expands (0.92)
• Secular societies now compete against religiously organized cooperation #expands (0.88)