Markets And Religious Beliefs - Why Strangers Cooperate

Researchers have long been puzzled by large societies in whichstrangers routinely engage in voluntary acts of kindness and respect even though there is often an individual cost involved. Evolutionary forces associated with kinship and reciprocity can explain such cooperative behavior among other primates, but the same isn't true for large societies of strangers. A new study published today in Science suggests that the cooperative nature of each society may be explained in part by religious beliefs and the growth of market transactions. The study also found the extent to which a society uses punishment to enforce norms increases and decreases with the number of people in the society. read more

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