Templeton Religion Trust
What if we knew where and when religion has positive effects on cooperation?
What if we had better ideas for how religion might fix cooperation breakdowns between individuals, groups, and societies ?
What might change if religion became a force for good in solving today’s social problems?
Yes, the animal world has its anthills and beehives, and they’re regularly touted as shining examples of cooperation. Yet, no animal effort can compare with the remarkable cohesion, coordination, and collaboration involved in acts of human cooperation. From the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to the International Space Station, from a family pulling off a holiday potluck to a whole community pulling together for a successful food drive – examples abound that prove people are uniquely skilled at cooperation.
Cooperation is a fact of life for us. In so many ways, , our lives depend on it. But we aren’t born with cooperation embedded in our chromosomes. Instead, it’s taught by our culture, and it plays out day-to-day in our social norms, economies, and institutions – including and, perhaps especially, in the institution of religion.
Across the arc of history, some form of religion has been part of every human civilization, shaping its rituals, morals, and beliefs. Yet, to this day, it’s unclear whether religion helps or hinders our ability to cooperate. Does it make us more engaged with others, or does it make us more insular? Does it bind us together or push us apart? Is it a bridge or a barrier? These are complex questions without simple answers.
Now, with funding from Templeton Religion Trust and as the first of its groundbreaking three-strand initiative focused on the social consequences of religion (SCORE), a select group of scholars is trying to make provable progress on understanding the impact of religion on human cooperation.
“Significant questions remain about when, why, how, and where religion promotes cooperation, or does so most effectively—especially where secular mechanisms of enforcement (such as contracts, and the rule of law) are already present. We hope to discover answers to at least some of those questions,” reports Michael McCullough, professor of psychology at the University of California San Diego and director of the SCORE cooperation research endeavor. “We also want to understand when and where religion can lead to the breakdown of cooperation, either within or between groups. If religion is important to cooperation failure, it may also be critical to its resolution.”
This 36-month project, distinct in its emphasis on real-life empirical investigation, aims to distribute resources and tools to outstanding scholars to help them develop new ways to explore the unknowns about the effects of religion on cooperation. Key objectives of this ambitious exploration include:
1) Prioritizing research that tests causal claims.
2) Measuring behavior versus self-reported measures of cooperation.
3) Attending to multiple time scales and levels of analysis.
4) Maintaining scientific objectivity, following the data where they lead.
5) Testing the generalizability of whatever conclusions the researchers find.
The project launched with recruiting and selecting a group of 20 scholars, together representing a broad swath of the social and life sciences, to become participants in this pioneering pursuit of new knowledge. As questers in a cooperative effort, they’re gathering each summer in workshops to gain the information, knowledge, and support they need to move their ideas forward. In addition, these workshops are elevating the research already done in this field of inquiry by giving it broader exposure.
Phase II will involve selecting 3-5 of the most promising projects for extended exploration. Cited as “Landmark Projects,” the criteria are demanding. Each must be ambitious, feasible, sustainable over 10-20 years, and highly likely to garner the funding needed for the duration.
As a new approach to age-old questions that’s happening at a time in history when cooperation sometimes seems hard to achieve, McCullough is convinced that the work underway in this project is both groundbreaking and imperative.
“We aim to increase both the quantity and quality of scientific projects searching for answers,” he says. “We expect our project to kick off a new era of research that will be built on and referenced for decades to come.
