By Reverence, Not Fear: Prestige, Religion, and Autonomic Regulation in the Evolution of Cooperation

Abstract

Recent evolutionary theories of religions emphasize their function as mechanisms for increasing prosociality. In particular, they claim that fear of supernatural punishment can be adaptive when it can compensate for humans' inability to monitor behavior and mete out punishment in large groups, as well when it can inhibit individuals' impulses for defection. Nonetheless, while fear of punishment may inhibit some antisocial behaviors like cheating, it is unlikely to motivate other prosocial behaviors, like helping. This is because human physiology has evolved separate neurological systems with differential behavioral correlates either for (1) processing fear and responding to threats or (2) facilitating social interactions in environments which are deemed safe. Almost all vertebrates possess autonomic pathways for processing threats and fear, which result in "fight," "flight," or "freeze" responses and so likely mediate interactions in dominance hierarchies. Mammals, however, possess an additional, phylogenetically newer, pathway dedicated to suppressing such defensive responses in the service of promoting social affiliation or engagement. Here, we argue that this mammalian physiology supports an alternative hierarchical system unique to humans: prestige. In contrast to dominance, which involves aversion, fear and shame, prestige hierarchies are characterized by physical proximity and eye-contact, as well as emotions like admiration and respect for leaders. Prestige also directs the flow of cultural information between individuals and has been argued to have evolved in order to help individuals acquire high quality information. Here, we argue that not only does the mammalian autonomic pathway support prestige hierarchies, but that coupled with prestige biased social learning, it opens up a means for prestigious figures, including deities, to support the spread of prosocial behaviors. Thus, in addition to theories that emphasizes religious fear as a motivating factor in the evolution of prosocial religions, we suggest that reverencewhich includes awe and respect for, deference to, admiration of, and a desire to please a deity or supernatural agent-is likely just as important. In support of this, we identify cases of religions that appear to be defined predominantly by prestige dynamics, and not fear of supernatural punishment.

Two Routes to Status, One Route to Health: Trait Dominance and Prestige Differentially Associate with Self-reported Stress and Health in Two US University Populations

“…Within polyvagal theory, parasympathetic activity also facilitates pro-social behaviors and social engagement (Porges, 2001 , 2007 ). Later work adapted the polyvagal theoretical framework, arguing that parasympathetic-mediated behaviors were necessary for the evolution of human prestige hierarchies (Lenfesty & Morgan, 2019 ). Indeed, parasympathetic activity has been linked to behaviors relevant to prestige based hierarchies – including social engagement, emotional and behavioral regulation, and compassion, among other pro-social behaviors (Bornemann et al, 2016 ; Miller et al, 2016 ; Roos et al, 2017 ; Segerstrom et al, 2011 ; Smith et al, 2020 ) – but parasympathetic activity has not been linked explicitly to trait prestige.…”

“…In one experiment, trait prestige, on its own or in an interaction with exogenous testosterone, did not predict cortisol responses to social evaluative stress in men, although trait prestige did correlate with reduced negative affect in this experiment 2 (Knight et al, 2017 ). Considering other physiological systems, some theorizing suggests the evolution of the parasympathetic nervous system may have been critical for the development of socially-binding behaviors inherent to human prestige hierarchies, such as social engagement and emotional and behavioral regulation (Lenfesty & Morgan, 2019 ; Porges, 2001 , 2007 ). Robust parasympathetic nervous system activity has, in turn, been associated with extensive health benefits (Kemp & Quintana, 2013 ; O’Connor et al, 2021 ; Thayer et al, 2012 ; Williams et al, 2019 ).…”

Gift Game Metatheory: Social Interaction and Interpersonal Growth

“…A meta-analysis across 18 societies clearly concluded that the effectiveness of punishment in promoting cooperation depends on the level of trust ( Balliet and Van Lange, 2013 ). Moreover, because human physiology has separate neurological systems for responding to threats and facilitating social interactions, fear of punishment may inhibit some anti-social behaviors like cheating, but still not motivate prosocial behavior ( Lenfesty and Morgan, 2019 ). In cases where players must have a personal commitment to fulfill their role, self-regarding actors who treat social norms as purely instrumental behave in a socially inefficient manner ( Gintis, 2014 , pp.…”

Trusting the experts: The domain-specificity of prestige-biased social learning

“…Examples of such social learning biases include copying the majority (conformity), copying older individuals, copying when uncertain, or copying prestigious individuals [6]. In this study we focus on the latter: prestige-biased social learning (henceforth prestige-bias), which occurs when learners preferentially learn from individuals who are copied by others, attended to by others, or who generally receive freely conferred deference from others [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. These individuals are said to have 'prestige'.…”