A Force for Good: When and Why Religion Predicts Prosocial Behavior

Abstract

The field of social psychology has largely neglected the study of religion until the last two decades. Since then, social psychologists have been focused on understanding how religion affects the way people treat each other. Does religion promote charity, morality, and the promotion of peace? Or does it foster intolerance, violence, and religious warfare? Social psychological research conducted to date suggests a complicated answer to this question. Religion is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon that can have divergent effects on behavior. Through systematic study, researchers have revealed that different religious concepts have diverse effects because of the different associations and motives that they call to mind. Despite these diverse messages, various scholars argue that the theme of magnanimity is paramount to all religions. Preliminary data support this centrality of the Golden Rule and related concepts, with participants ascribing to various religions associating their religion with prosocial rather than antisocial values. If so, religion might function as a prosocial guide to people, even in the absence of any explicit religious teachings or directives that prescribe prosocial behavior. Moreover, if magnanimity is a fundamental religious principle, then religion might most powerfully exert a prosocial influence on people’s behavior when they would otherwise be likely to engage in vengeful, hostile behavior, such as when experiences some kind of threat. This essay summarizes seven studies showing that a non-directive religious belief system prime can curb hostile reactions to threat, and discusses implications of these findings in the context of the broader literature on religion and prosociality.