Michael Pasek, a University of Illinois Chicago social psychologist, and colleagues explored the question of whether prosocial behavior can span religious groups. The researchers, through field and online experiments, involved more than 4,700 people from diverse ethnoreligious populations in three political and cultural contexts.
The findings appeared in the journal Psychological Science and demonstrated that people showed more generosity toward strangers when they were prompted to think about God. Participants’ giving increased equally too no matter if the recipients were members of the same religious group or not. The study looked at a number of religious groups spanning Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Jews in the Middle East, Fiji and the U.S.
The research found an 11% overall increase in giving (relative to what they gave initially) when individuals thought about God. This level was across experiments and sites, regardless of conflict levels or perceived threat.
“Religion is often thought to promote intergroup conflict and fuel hostility between people who hold different beliefs. Quite to the contrary — our findings suggest that belief in God, which is an important aspect of most world religions, may sometimes promote more positive intergroup relations,” said Pasek in a press statement.
Pasek worked alongside Jeremy Ginges, professor of psychology at The New School of Social Research. He added that the study findings suggest that one’s god may promote cooperation across religious divides, rather than assumed antipathy. He also said that it is unlikely that such beliefs always promote harmony.
“Belief in gods may encourage cooperative norms that help us trade goods and ideas across group boundaries, which is essential to human flourishing. Of course, we are also a parochial species. Our team is now investigating how moral and supernatural beliefs help people balance their parochialism with their need for intergroup cooperation,” Ginges said in a statement.The research was supported by the Templeton Religious Trust, the National Science Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Susan is an author with a long-time interest in religion and science. She currently edits Covalence, the Lutheran Alliance for Faith, Science and Technology’s online magazine. She has written articles in The Lutheran and the Zygon Center for Religion and Science newsletter. Susan is a board member for the Center for Advanced Study of Religion and Science, the supporting organization for the Zygon Center and the Zygon Journal. She also co-wrote Our Bodies Are Selves with Dr. Philip Hefner and Dr. Ann Pederson.
