RETRACTED: Complex societies precede moralizing gods throughout world history

Nature • Vol/Iss. 567(7748) • Springer Nature Publishing AG • • Published In • Pages: 226-229 •
By Whitehouse, Harvey, François, Pieter, Savage, Patrick E., Curie, Thomas E., Feeney, Kevin C., Cioni, Enrico, Purcell, Rosalind, Moss, Robert M., Larson, Jennifer, Baines, John, ter Haar, Barend, Covey, Alan, Turchin, Peter

Abstract

Researchers tackle the moral gods hypothesis which proposes that moral gods enabled large-scale societies to evolve. They use 414 societies spanning 10,000 years in Seshat: Global History Databank and code 51 measures of social complexity and four measures of moral gods. The findings of the present study challenge the moral gods hypothesis. In the societies studied, complex societies appear to precede moral gods rather than the inverse of moral gods preceding complex societies.

Note

Notes: This article was retracted as a response to Beheim et al.'s (2021) criticism regarding its missing data and the mislabeling during the data analysis. The authors published a new article with the correction of errors in the coding and analysis. The results did not significantly change after the reanalysis of Seshat data. The entry of the review can be found here: http://192.168.10.248/documents/1502.

Samples

Sample Used Coded Data Comment
Seshat: Global History DatabankResearchers' own

Hypotheses (3)

HypothesisSupported
RETRACTED: There is an association between moral gods and social complexity (227).Supported
RETRACTED: Contrary to the Moral High Gods hypothesis, complex societies precede moralizing gods (227).Supported
RETRACTED: Contrary to the Moral Gods Hypothesis, complex societies precede broad supernatural punishment of moral transgressions (227).Supported
Documents and Hypotheses Filed By: milagro.escobar  abbe.mccarter  anj.droe  stefania.becerralavado