New research using Seshat: Global History Databank (named for the ancient Egyptian goddess of wisdom), which contains information about the sizes, governments, militaries, religions, economies, and more of hundreds of societies spanning the past 10,000 years, making it possible for researchers to quantitatively compare them, found that beliefs in judgmental gods or supernatural laws such as karma are a consequence, and not a cause, of the evolution of complex societies. It was a popular theory that people were more likely to cooperate fairly if they believe in gods who will punish them if they do not. The data strongly contradicts this hypothesis, and instead, shows that in almost every world religion for which there is data, moralizing gods tend to follow, not precede, increases in social complexity. The research was published in the journal Nature.