Nicolas Baumard|Alexandre Hyafil|Ian Morris|Pascal Boyer
Increased Affluence Explains the Emergence of Ascetic Wisdoms and Moralizing Religions
École Normale Supérieure - PSL|University of Pennsylvania|École Normale Supérieure - PSL|Stanford University|Claude Bernard University Lyon 1|Washington University in St. Louis
roughly 500 bce 300 bce three distinct regions yangtze yellow river valleys eastern mediterranean ganges valley saw emergence highly similar religious traditions unprecedented emphasis selfdiscipline asceticism otherworldly often moralizing doctrines including buddhism jainism brahmanism daoism second temple judaism stoicism later offshoots christianity manichaeism islam cultural convergence often called axial age presents puzzle emerge time distinct moralizing religions highly similar features different civilizations puzzle may solved quantitative historical evidence demonstrates exceptional uptake energy capture proxy general prosperity axial age three regionsstatistical modeling confirms economic development political complexity population size accounts timing axial agewe discussed several possible causal pathways including development literacy urban life put forward idea inspired life history theory absolute affluence would impacted human motivation reward systems nudging people away shortterm strategies resource acquisition coercive interactions promoting longterm strategies selfcontrol techniques cooperative interactions