Which theory explains how religion can promote prosocial behavior by leveraging beliefs in supernatural agents to constrain behavior when no one is watching?

• A. Religion enforces prosocial behavior through divine punishment.
• B. Beliefs in supernatural agents evolved to keep people behaving even when unseen, requiring group selection.
• C. Religiosity has no impact on social behavior.
• D. Religious rituals eliminate all forms of aggression.

Answer: (B)

Beliefs in supernatural agents act as invisible overseers that deter selfish actions when no one is watching. This idea fits a broad evolutionary story: such beliefs could spread and persist because they help groups cooperate more effectively, giving them an advantage. The emphasis on beliefs evolving to keep people behaving unseen, together with group selection as the mechanism for these norms to become widespread, explains both why religion can promote prosocial behavior across people and why these beliefs persist in populations even without direct, ongoing supervision. It also clarifies why simply pointing to divine punishment as a behavior trigger doesn’t fully capture how these beliefs can spread and stabilize within groups over time.