VANCOUVER, August 30, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Thoughts related to God
cultivate cooperative behaviour and generosity, according to University of
British Columbia psychology researchers.
In a study to be published in the September issue of Psychological Science
journal, researchers investigated how thinking about God and notions of a
higher power influenced positive social behaviour, specifically cooperation
with others and generosity to strangers.
UBC PhD graduate Azim Shariff and UBC Assoc. Prof. Ara Norenzayan found that
priming people with 'god concepts' - by activating subconscious thoughts
through word games - promoted altruism. In addition, the researchers found that
this effect was consistent in behaviour whether people declared themselves
believers or not. The researchers also found that secular notions of civic
responsibility promote cooperation and generosity.
"This is a twist on an age old question - does a belief in God influence
moral behaviour"" says Shariff. "We asked, does the concept of
god influence cooperative behaviour" Previous attempts to answer this
question have been driven by speculation and anecdote."
The research, conducted between September 2005 and July 2006 with 125
participants, is the first of its kind in North America. According to the
researchers, there is little replicable empirical data using moral behaviour
and religion as measures. As Shariff notes, UBC is the first to apply an
implicit priming technique to capture and assess subconscious motives or goals,
and their associated behavioural outcomes, to this area of concern.
Priming is an experimental procedure used by cognitive and social scientists,
mainly in psychology and economics, to obtain indicators of social tendencies
by implicitly inducing relevant thoughts. As priming operates largely outside
explicit awareness, subjects are unlikely to consciously revise their
behaviours or beliefs, the researchers say.
The researchers undertook two related studies. In both studies, groups were
randomly assigned to the religious prime or to the control group. Participants
in the religious prime group were given a word game and had to unscramble
sentences (using spirit, divine, God, sacred and prophet). Those in the control
group were given the same task with non-spiritual words. After this task, all
participants played an anonymous dictator game, whereby subjects were given 10
one-dollar coins and asked to make a decision of what to keep and what to share
with an anonymous recipient.
The researchers were surprised by the magnitude of the positive results for the
religious prime in both studies. Sixty-eight per cent of subjects from the
religious prime groups allocated $5 or more to anonymous strangers, compared to
22 per cent from groups where neutral or no concepts were activated.
In the second study the researchers also investigated the strength of the
religious prime relative to a secular prime. They used concepts of civic
responsibility and social justice to prime subjects (with target words civic,
jury, court, police and contract) and obtained almost identical results.
"We did not anticipate such a subtle prime, simply getting participants to
unscramble sentences with a few key words, having such a large effect on
people's willingness to give money to strangers," said Shariff.
"These are compelling findings that have substantial impact on the study
of social behaviour because they draw a causal relationship between religion
and acting morally - a topic of some debate. They by no means indicate that
religion is necessary for moral behaviour, but it can make a substantial
contribution."