Approximately 70% of the world’s population professes one of the major world religions, in which there is an idea of an omniscient God (or gods), punishing for transgressions. These religions supplanted many local beliefs that did not have such ideas. Why and why do we need this?
Anthropologist Benjamin Purrzycki from the University of British Columbia in Canada, together with colleagues, decided to test the hypothesis that such beliefs contribute to the development of cooperation between people, which is an important prerequisite for the development of civilization.
To do this, the researchers conducted an interview and game experiment with a total of 591 people from eight different cultures in different parts of the world – in Siberia, Fiji, Brazil and other regions. Some of these people were self-employed, others lived a traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Some of the study participants professed one of the main world religions – Christianity, Buddhism or Islam, while others were adherents of traditional beliefs and worshiped various local gods or ancestral spirits.
The main experiment was as follows: each participant had to play two games. In both, they had to roll a die and, depending on what came up, place each of the 30 coins given to them in one of two cups. At the same time, no one controlled compliance with the rules and it was very easy to manipulate the result, since the participant himself chose which results of the dice roll corresponded to which cup.
Those who believed in omniscient gods were much more honest in distributing coins between themselves and a distant stranger of the same faith.
In the first game, the money in one of the cups was supposed to go to a stranger of the same religious affiliation as the participant and living in the same place. Money from the second cup also went to a person of the same religious affiliation, but living in a different place. In the second game, money from the first cup went to the participant himself, from the second – again to a distant brother in faith.
The coins were of great value. If the participant in the second game kept all the coins for himself, he could exchange them for an amount equal to his salary for the whole day. Hunter-gatherers could trade coins for a large portion of corn.
According to the theory of probability, participants who followed all the rules would put approximately the same number of coins in each cup. Many participants actively broke the rules in their favor. However, the observance of the rules depended heavily on the religion practiced. Those who believed in omniscient gods who enforced moral laws and punished sins were much more honest in distributing coins between themselves and a distant stranger of the same faith. At the same time, belief in gods that reward good deeds or in punishing local (that is, not omniscient) gods or spirits did not affect the behavior of the participants.
According to Benjamin Purzycki, believers in a strict, omniscient God (or gods) “honestly keep the rules towards people they have never seen.” Researchers believe that such beliefs contributed to the creation of social and economic institutions that underlie civilization. At the same time, the scientist emphasizes that it does not follow from these results that religious people are kinder than others – they are just more inclined to cooperate (and only with fellow believers).