宗教的果報觀如何促進道德行為與社會利益：以演化賽局模型分析=How Religious Retributive Justice Improve Individuals’ Moral Behavior and Social Benefit: Analyzed by a Evolutionary Game Theory
The aim of this study is to extend Robert H. Frank’s moral sentiments evolutionary game theory (1988) to discuss how religious retributive justice (Buddhism’s “karma”), which means “good is rewarded with good and evil meets evil”,improve individuals’ moral behavior and social benefit. Firstly, Frank’s “reputation model” and Herrnstein’s “matching law” are introduced for discussing that religious “karma” affects individuals’ moral behavior by three approaches: “rewards and punishments”, “the moral sentiment of guilt” and “the possibility of punishment”. Secondly, it is assumed that retributive justice is able to strengthen the “reputation phenomena”. This means that the “identity” of believer himself can be a trustable signaling characteristic of inside morality. By this assumption, Frank’s moral sentiments evolutionary game is re-simulated. The main findings of simulation are: (1) “karma” not only can increase short-run but also long-run social benefit. (2) 72教育與社會研究(十五) “karma” (or retributive justice) does not bring social justice, although it brings social benefit. Two questions are discussed in the end. First, why, before the industry revolution, are most rich countries also those taken retributive justice belief? Second, does the deeper the belief of “karma”，the higher the temptation from evil (the temptation from injustice benefit)?
