Big God
Big God refers to a concept in the cognitive science of religion and cultural evolution describing moralizing, watchful deities who monitor human behavior and enforce prosocial norms. The term is used to explain how belief in such supernatural monitors enabled large-scale cooperation, trust, and group cohesion beyond what kinship or agriculture alone could achieve.
Claims that use this term
- Big God belief enabled group cooperation that agriculture alone could not achieve.
- Big God religion and large-scale cooperation co-evolved in feedback
- Big God participation raises economic game offers by 6 to 10 percentile points
- Big God religions create social boundaries excluding outsiders through supernatural monitoring.
- Market integration and Big God religion independently predict prosocial generosity cross-culturally
- Big God believers are more generous than local-god believers cross-culturally