Among humans, paternal investment has been shown to enhance both fertility and offspring survival. While psychological and ecological influences on human paternal investment are relatively well documented, cultural influences remain less well understood. It has been proposed that religion can be an important socio-cultural factor shaping paternal investment. First, religions often instill pro-family values in fathers, potentially increasing their investment. Second, if religions promote pro-family values in mothers, these values may be communicated through religious behaviours, encouraging greater paternal investment. Alternatively, fathers may use maternal religiosity as a strategic cue of maternal pro-family commitment to reduce their own investment, shifting responsibility to mothers. To evaluate these hypotheses, we analyse data from 1238 children under 17 years old across 822 households in India and Bangladesh. Our findings suggest that in India, paternal religiosity is positively associated with fathers' housework assistance and emotional support to mothers. In Bangladesh, maternal religiosity is positively associated with paternal emotional support to mothers and child provisioning. In both countries, maternal religiosity positively associates with paternal investment among the most religious fathers. These findings indicate that religion plays a complex role in paternal investment, shaped by the interplay of parental religiosity and socio-ecological context.

Centre for Culture and Evolution Brunel University of London Uxbridge UB8 3PH UK

Department of Anthropology Baylor University Waco TX 76798 7173 USA

Department of Anthropology Binghamton University Binghamton NY 13902 6000 USA

Department of Anthropology Penn State University University Park PA 16802 USA

Department of Anthropology University of Connecticut Storrs CT 06269 1176 USA

Department of Global Health and Population Harvard University Boston MA 02115 USA

Faculty of Economics European Research University 702 00 Ostrava Czech Republic

Human Nutrition Unit Mahidol University Nakhon Pathom 73170 Thailand

ICDDRB Public Health Sciences Division Dhaka 1212 Bangladesh

Population Health London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine London WC1E 7HT UK

Religion Programme University of Otago Dunedin 9016 Otago New Zealand

Society for Health and Demographic Surveillance Suri West Bengal India 731101

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