Religious parents receive more alloparental aid in rural Bangladesh.

ABSTRACT: Researchers have long speculated about the evolutionary benefits of religiosity. One explanation for the evolution of religious ritual is that rituals signal commitment to co-religionists. As a major domain of prosocial behaviour, alloparental care - or care directed at children by non-parents - is a plausible benefit of religious signalling. The religious alloparenting hypothesis posits that parents who signal religious commitment receive greater alloparental support. Prior research on religiosity, cooperation, and allocare tends to treat individuals as isolated units, despite the inherent collective nature of religious cooperation. Here, we address this limitation in a survey-based study of 710 parents in rural Bangladesh. Instead of focusing only on mothers, we consider the interplay be

SUBMITTER: Samore T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12895441 | biostudies-literature | 2026

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature