Prosociality arises from many sources besides religious supernatural monitoring

Evidence

First, believers who intuitively link religion with morality fail to understand that there are multiple motivations and reasons to be nice and to do good. We have seen that religion, by harnessing supernatural monitoring and the bonds of community, is one such source of prosociality. But it is far from the only one. Feelings of being under social surveillance, for example, encourage nice behavior regardless of religiosity. Expectations of mutual gain push people to be nice with each other, even in situations devoid of religious meanings. Moral emotions such as feelings of empathy and compassion can also motivate profound acts of kindness. Empathy and compassion are viscerally easier to apply to one’s kin and to ingroup members, but children and adults can be socialized to extend these emotions as virtues to be cultivated and applied to a broader range of humanity. In such an expanding moral circle, we feel connected to complete strangers. … The broadening of the moral compass in turn may recruit the moral emotions in a virtuous cycle of including more and more people into the moral circle. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 248

Categorization

• XREF: Directly connects to the reader’s analytical frame: Peter Singer’s expanding moral circle vs. Norenzayan’s Big God mechanism as competing routes to prosociality — the social-surveillance alternative bears on whether an omniscient gaze is necessary.