A study has found that religious and civic responsibility concepts lead to more altruistic behaviour.
The experiments were conducted by Azim Shariff and Ara Norenzayan at the University of British Columbia in Canada.
The experiments asked people to sort jumbled words. One group was given religious words or words to do with civic responsibility the other group was given words that were just random. After doing the unjumbling the participants played a game where they were give ten one dollar and asked how many they would keep and how many they would share. The groups who had done the unjumbling with religious or civic responsibility words were three times more likely to give five dollars or more to anonymous strangers than those who had unjumble random words. The results with the god concept sorting occurred whether people believed in god or not.
This leads to a pragmatic argument for education in civic responsibility or religion. (At least for those of us who think that civilisation means kindness to those we don’t know. Those who think that the economy is god and is run on competition of all against all would disagree I suppose.) Should this education be indirect rather than direct? Could you set up a curriculum for indirect education?
I want to know more. Did the people have largely positive associations with their god concepts? Would the results be the same, say, for the followers of Kali the Destroyer?
It also raises the point that much of our behaviour is influenced indirectly. We may not be aware of how our concepts shape our behaviour. I find this an incredibly intriguing and thought provoking piece of research.
What experiences of yours have led you to change your behaviour? Have you been surprised at the changes that your experiences have led you to make?
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