Why do humans develop beliefs in supernatural entities that punish uncooperative behaviors? Leading hypotheses maintain that these beliefs are widespread because they facilitate cooperation, allowing their groups to outcompete others in intergroup competition. Focusing on within-group interactions, we present a model in which people strategically endorse supernatural punishment beliefs as intuitive tools of social control to manipulate others into cooperating. Others accept these beliefs, meanwhile, because they are made compelling by various cognitive biases: they appear to provide information about why misfortune occurs; they appeal to intuitions about immanent justice; they contain threatening information; and they allow believers to signal their trustworthiness. Explaining supernatural beliefs requires considering both motivations to invest in their endorsement and the reasons others adopt them.

为什么人类会产生对惩罚不合作行为的超自然实体的信仰？主要假设认为，这些信念之所以普遍存在，是因为它们促进了合作，允许他们的群体在群体间竞争中胜过其他人。专注于群体内的互动，我们提出了一个模型，在该模型中，人们战略性地认可超自然惩罚信念作为社会控制的直观工具，以操纵他人进行合作。与此同时，其他人接受这些信念，因为它们受到各种认知偏见的影响：它们似乎提供了有关不幸发生原因的信息；他们诉诸关于内在正义的直觉；它们包含威胁信息；他们允许信徒表明他们的可信度。