Large-scale cooperation driven by reputation, not fear of divine punishment.

ABSTRACT: Reputational considerations favour cooperation and thus we expect less cooperation in larger communities where people are less well known to each other. Some argue that institutions are, therefore, necessary to coordinate large-scale cooperation, including moralizing religions that promote cooperation through the fear of divine punishment. Here, we use community size as a proxy for reputational concerns, and test whether people in small, stable communities are more cooperative than people in large, less stable communities in both religious and non-religious contexts. We conducted a donation game on a large naturalistic sample of 501 people in 17 communities, with varying religions or none, ranging from small villages to large cities in northwestern China. We found that more money was donat

SUBMITTER: Ge E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6731744 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature