Rewarding the good and punishing the bad: The role of karma and afterlife beliefs in shaping moral norms

Cognitive Pathways to Belief in Karma and Belief in God

“…Beyond Hinduism and Buddhism, karma is also prevalent in traditional Chinese religions, Sikhism, Jainism, and many other smaller religious groups. In countries where Buddhism or Hinduism is prevalent, karmic beliefs are also widespread and closely intertwined with moral values in everyday contexts (e.g., interpersonal relationships, business ethics), even among individuals who do not formally identify as Hindu or Buddhist (Berniūnas, Dranseika, & Tserendamba, 2020; Mulla & Krishnan, 2014; Willard et al, 2020). Belief in karma is also common among the rapidly growing Western “spiritual but not religious,” even though most of these individuals are not raised in karma‐oriented religious traditions (White, Norenzayan, & Schaller, 2019).…”

“…While these associations are small in magnitude (with a typical effect size of about r = .18), and there are lively debates about their robustness (e.g., Gervais et al, 2018; Maij et al, 2017; Stagnaro, Ross, Pennycook, & Rand, 2019), they have emerged in high‐powered samples, in several cultural contexts, and are robust to demographic controls and various types of measurement (Baimel, White, & Norenzayan, 2019; Gervais et al, 2018; Pennycook et al, 2016; Stagnaro et al, 2019). Additionally, belief in God is predicted by cognitive tendencies for mentalizing (perceiving and engaging with other human minds, Frith & Frith, 2012); mind–body dualism (thinking about minds as separate and independent from physical bodies, Astuti & Harris, 2008; Chudek, McNamara, Birch, Bloom, & Henrich, 2018; Cohen, Burdett, Knight, & Barrett, 2011; Järnefelt, Canfield, & Kelemen, 2015; Slingerland & Chudek, 2011); and teleological thinking (reasoning about the purpose and intentional design of artifacts and biological entities, Banerjee & Bloom, 2014; Heywood & Bering, 2014; Kelemen, 2004; Kelemen & Rosset, 2009; for comprehensive path models of these relationships, see Willard, Baimel, et al, 2020; Willard & Norenzayan, 2013).…”

Cognitive pathways to belief in karma and belief in God

“…Beyond Hinduism and Buddhism, karma is also prevalent in Traditional Chinese Religions, Sikhism, Jainism, and many other smaller religious groups. In countries were Buddhism or Hinduism are prevalent, karmic beliefs are also widespread and closely intertwined with moral values in everyday contexts (e.g., interpersonal relationships, business ethics), even among individuals who do not formally identify as Hindu or Buddhist (Berniūnas et al, 2020;Mulla & Krishnan, 2014;Willard, Baimel, et al, 2020). Belief in karma is also common among the rapidly growing Western "spiritual but not religious", even though most of these individuals are not raised in karma-oriented religious traditions (White, Norenzayan, & Schaller, 2019).…”

“…Buddhism is also diverse, and while many traditions do not require or even encourage belief in gods or other supernatural agents, many individual Buddhists do believe that the world is inhabited by a variety of supernatural agents worthy of respect and devotion, and some ascribe to Buddha many of the omniscient, punitive, moralistic traits that characterize gods (Berniūnas et al, 2020;Purzycki & Holland, 2018;Stanford & Jong, 2019). In contrast, karma is typically characterized as the consequences for one's actions that are unrelated to divine intervention (Bronkhorst, 2011;Gowans, 2014;Willard, Baimel, et al, 2020). Unlike Abrahamic religions, afterlife/reincarnation beliefs in Buddhism become moralized through their association with karma, not the belief in a moralistic God (Obeyesekere, 2002).…”

“…In Hindu and Buddhist theology (Bronkhorst, 2011;Obeyesekere, 2002) and in the self-reports of beliefs about karma Willard, Baimel, et al, 2020), karma is typically believed to operate over multiple lifetimes across the cycle of reincarnation, and to operate especially in the case of moral actions. Thinking about moralized reincarnation requires 1understanding human morality, including the human intentions and mental states that inform the morality of many actions (Gray et al, 2012;Willard, Baimel, et al, 2020;cf. McNamara et al, 2019), and (2) believing that human minds can continue to exist after death and persist through reincarnation in new bodies (C. White, 2015White, , 2017.…”