Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Anthropology

Hand of the gods in human civilization

Nature volume 530, pages 285–286 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

Cross-cultural experiments find that belief in moralistic, knowledgeable and punishing gods promotes cooperation with strangers, supporting a role for religion in the expansion of human societies. See Letter p.327

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Weighing of the heart.

The Trustees of the British Museum

Notes

  1. See all news & views

References

  1. Purzycki, B. G. et al. Nature 530, 327–330 (2016).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Sosis, R. J. Cogn. Culture 9, 315–332 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Johnson, D. God is Watching You: How the Fear of God Makes Us Human (Oxford Univ. Press, 2016).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Schloss, J. P. & Murray, M. J. Religion Brain Behav. 1, 46–99 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Wilson, D. S. Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society (Univ. Chicago Press, 2002).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  6. Norenzayan, A. Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict (Princeton Univ. Press, 2013).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  7. Hartberg, Y., Cox, M. & Villamayor-Tomas, S. Religion Brain Behav. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2014.959547 (2014).

  8. Watts, J. et al. Proc. R. Soc. B 282, 20142556 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Turchin, P. Ultrasociety: How 10,000 Years of War Made Humans the Greatest Cooperators on Earth (Beresta, 2015).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Whitehouse, H. & Lanman, J. A. Curr. Anthropol. 55, 674–695 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dominic D. P. Johnson is in the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3UQ, UK.,

    Dominic D. P. Johnson

Authors
  1. Dominic D. P. Johnson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dominic D. P. Johnson.

Related links

Related links

Related links in Nature Research

Evolutionary anthropology: Homo 'incendius'

Anthropology: Shades of the savannah

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Johnson, D. Hand of the gods in human civilization. Nature 530, 285–286 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16879

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16879

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing