Are those who believe in God really more prosocial?
© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Whether those who believe in God are more prosocial has been a long debated topic. Here we shed new light on this question by examining giving in incentivized Dictator Games where no mention of religion was made, played online with...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Informa UK Limited
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133308 |
| _version_ | 1826216550348095488 |
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| author | Stagnaro, Michael N Arechar, Antonio A Rand, David G |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Stagnaro, Michael N Arechar, Antonio A Rand, David G |
| author_sort | Stagnaro, Michael N |
| collection | MIT |
| description | © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Whether those who believe in God are more prosocial has been a long debated topic. Here we shed new light on this question by examining giving in incentivized Dictator Games where no mention of religion was made, played online with anonymous strangers. Study 1 (N = 15,827) found a significant correlation between belief and giving, r =.122 (robust to demographics). Study 2 (N = 2334) included the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) to examine whether this relationship could be explained by intuitive cognitive style driving both belief and prosociality. Study 2 replicated the correlation between belief and giving, r =.106, and found CRT to be negatively correlated with both belief, r = −.229, and giving, r = −.174. Critically, the relationship between belief and giving was reduced by 34% when controlling for CRT; and also adding basic demographics rendered the relationship non-significant. Our results suggest that—at least in this task and population—believers do show greater prosociality, but more due to intuitive cognitive style than belief per se. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:49:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/133308 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:49:06Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Informa UK Limited |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1333082023-11-07T19:21:53Z Are those who believe in God really more prosocial? Stagnaro, Michael N Arechar, Antonio A Rand, David G Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Whether those who believe in God are more prosocial has been a long debated topic. Here we shed new light on this question by examining giving in incentivized Dictator Games where no mention of religion was made, played online with anonymous strangers. Study 1 (N = 15,827) found a significant correlation between belief and giving, r =.122 (robust to demographics). Study 2 (N = 2334) included the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) to examine whether this relationship could be explained by intuitive cognitive style driving both belief and prosociality. Study 2 replicated the correlation between belief and giving, r =.106, and found CRT to be negatively correlated with both belief, r = −.229, and giving, r = −.174. Critically, the relationship between belief and giving was reduced by 34% when controlling for CRT; and also adding basic demographics rendered the relationship non-significant. Our results suggest that—at least in this task and population—believers do show greater prosociality, but more due to intuitive cognitive style than belief per se. 2021-10-27T19:52:03Z 2021-10-27T19:52:03Z 2019 2021-04-13T13:30:25Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133308 en 10.1080/2153599X.2019.1695656 Religion Brain and Behavior Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf Informa UK Limited SSRN |
| spellingShingle | Stagnaro, Michael N Arechar, Antonio A Rand, David G Are those who believe in God really more prosocial? |
| title | Are those who believe in God really more prosocial? |
| title_full | Are those who believe in God really more prosocial? |
| title_fullStr | Are those who believe in God really more prosocial? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Are those who believe in God really more prosocial? |
| title_short | Are those who believe in God really more prosocial? |
| title_sort | are those who believe in god really more prosocial |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133308 |
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