Display options
Cite
Botero CA, Gardner B, Kirby KR, et al. The ecology of religious beliefs. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014;111(47):16784-9doi: 10.1073/pnas.1408701111.
Botero, C. A., Gardner, B., Kirby, K. R., Bulbulia, J., Gavin, M. C., & Gray, R. D. (2014). The ecology of religious beliefs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(47), 16784-9. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1408701111
Botero, Carlos A, et al. "The ecology of religious beliefs." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol. 111,47 (2014): 16784-9. doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1408701111
Botero CA, Gardner B, Kirby KR, Bulbulia J, Gavin MC, Gray RD. The ecology of religious beliefs. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Nov 25;111(47):16784-9. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1408701111. Epub 2014 Nov 10. PMID: 25385605; PMCID: PMC4250141.
Copy Download .nbib Format: NLM
Share it on

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Nov 25;111(47):16784-9. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1408701111. Epub 2014 Nov 10.

The ecology of religious beliefs.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Carlos A Botero, Beth Gardner, Kathryn R Kirby, Joseph Bulbulia, Michael C Gavin, Russell D Gray

Affiliations

  1. Initiative for Biological Complexity, Department of the Interior Southeast Climate Science Center, and Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130; [email protected].
  2. Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695;
  3. Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Department of Geography and Program in Planning, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 3E8;
  4. School of Art History, Classics and Religious Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6140, New Zealand;
  5. Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523;
  6. School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand; School of Philosophy, Research School of the Social Sciences, Australian National University, 0200 Canberra, Australia; and Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for History and the Sciences, 07745 Jena, Germany.

PMID: 25385605 PMCID: PMC4250141 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1408701111

Abstract

Although ecological forces are known to shape the expression of sociality across a broad range of biological taxa, their role in shaping human behavior is currently disputed. Both comparative and experimental evidence indicate that beliefs in moralizing high gods promote cooperation among humans, a behavioral attribute known to correlate with environmental harshness in nonhuman animals. Here we combine fine-grained bioclimatic data with the latest statistical tools from ecology and the social sciences to evaluate the potential effects of environmental forces, language history, and culture on the global distribution of belief in moralizing high gods (n = 583 societies). After simultaneously accounting for potential nonindependence among societies because of shared ancestry and cultural diffusion, we find that these beliefs are more prevalent among societies that inhabit poorer environments and are more prone to ecological duress. In addition, we find that these beliefs are more likely in politically complex societies that recognize rights to movable property. Overall, our multimodel inference approach predicts the global distribution of beliefs in moralizing high gods with an accuracy of 91%, and estimates the relative importance of different potential mechanisms by which this spatial pattern may have arisen. The emerging picture is neither one of pure cultural transmission nor of simple ecological determinism, but rather a complex mixture of social, cultural, and environmental influences. Our methods and findings provide a blueprint for how the increasing wealth of ecological, linguistic, and historical data can be leveraged to understand the forces that have shaped the behavior of our own species.

Keywords: cultural evolution; ecological risk; environmental effects; religion; supernatural beliefs

References

  1. PLoS One. 2013;8(11):e80753 - PubMed
  2. Hum Nat. 2005 Dec;16(4):410-46 - PubMed
  3. Trends Cogn Sci. 2013 Jan;17(1):20-5 - PubMed
  4. Cogn Sci. 2014 Jan-Feb;38(1):152-61 - PubMed
  5. South Med J. 2007 Sep;100(9):946-7 - PubMed
  6. Psychol Sci. 2007 Sep;18(9):803-9 - PubMed
  7. PLoS One. 2012;7(12):e49648 - PubMed
  8. Science. 2009 Jan 23;323(5913):479-83 - PubMed
  9. Mol Ecol. 2014 Feb;23(2):259-68 - PubMed
  10. Br J Psychiatry. 2000 Oct;177:303-11 - PubMed
  11. Science. 2012 Aug 24;337(6097):957-60 - PubMed
  12. Science. 2011 May 27;332(6033):1100-4 - PubMed
  13. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1995 Aug 29;92(18):8092-9 - PubMed
  14. Proc Biol Sci. 2013 Jul 7;280(1762):20130695 - PubMed
  15. Pers Soc Psychol Rev. 2010 Feb;14(1):7-16 - PubMed
  16. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Apr 3;104(14):5925-30 - PubMed
  17. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2006 Feb;32(2):174-87 - PubMed
  18. Psychol Sci. 2010 Feb;21(2):216-8 - PubMed
  19. Science. 2010 Mar 19;327(5972):1480-4 - PubMed
  20. Mol Ecol. 2012 Feb;21(3):541-53 - PubMed
  21. J Theor Biol. 2002 Apr 7;215(3):287-96 - PubMed
  22. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Jul 9;110(28):E2602-10 - PubMed
  23. Curr Biol. 2011 Jan 11;21(1):72-8 - PubMed
  24. Curr Biol. 2007 Aug 21;17(16):1414-9 - PubMed
  25. Hum Nat. 2012 Sep;23(3):253-69 - PubMed

MeSH terms

Publication Types