Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Epiphenom

Home
About

Home
Nonreligious
In Mauritius, religious locations increase generosity

In Mauritius, religious locations increase generosity

Last updated on: November 12, 2014 at 2:52 am by Epiphenom

In Mauritius, religious locations increase generosity 2014-11-12T02:52:30+01:00 Epiphenom

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Several studies have found that subconsciously priming people with religious concepts can encourage them to be more altruistic.The strange thing is, this seems to work just as well on atheists.

But most of these studies have been done in labs, and with Westerners. What about the real world?

Back in 2009, Dimitris Xygalatas (at the Religion, Cognition and Culture research unit (RCC), Aarhus University, Denmark) spent some time conducting ethnographic research with the people of Pointe aux Piments, Mauritius. Mauritius is one of the most socially diverse societies on Earth, with a population entirely derived from immigration over the past 300 years and now comprising a mix of people with Asian, African and European ancestry and a mix of religions (50% Hindu, 30% Christian, 17% Muslim).

While he was there, he conducted a simple game of bargaining trust with the participants.

Along with collaborators, he told pairs of people (31 pairs in total) that they had a pot of money (500 rupees, equivalent to five days’ minimum pay of an unskilled worker). Each player could draw however much they wanted from the pot, and whatever was left over would be increased by 50% and split between the two players.

The catch is that, if the players together withdrew more than 500 rupees, they went bust and neither got anything. (At this point, it’s fun to consider how much you would withdraw from the pot!)

Now, the cunning part was that one of the pair was sat in a restaurant, while the other was in a Hindu temple. Each was just recruited off the street, and led on a short walk to either location – the experimenters communicated the results to each other over the phone.

As you can see from the figure (left side), the people who were sat in the temple withdrew less from the pot than those who were sat in the restaurant.

Now, the people in the two different locations were basically the same – a random mix of ages, sexes, ethnicities, and religions. And, even more intriguingly, both parties expected to receive the similar amounts in return (as you can see on the right hand side of the graph).

What this means is that simply putting someone in a temple makes them want to give more. But even more important is finding that they don’t expect more back.

When asked to justify their decision, Xygalatas says that:

… those who played in the temple tended to evoke fairness related terms more frequently (48.4%) than those in the restaurant (19.4%). Conversely, those who played in the restaurant explained their choice in terms of strategic thinking terms (typically referring to ‘‘strategy’’, ‘‘tactics’’, or ‘‘logic’’) more frequently (67.7%) than those who played in the temple (48.4%).

So it seems that simply being in a temple, rather than a secular meeting place, triggers altruistic behaviour.

There’s several possible explanations for this result. It might be that a religious setting might trigger thoughts about fairness and cooperation, or maybe the Hindu statues make people feel like they’re being watched. Xygalatas explains that both effects could work together.

Whatever the reason, this fits nicely with previous hints that the results you get from experimental studies of religion are exquisitely sensitive to the setting (see here for another example).

And it’s good to know that you get the same kind of effects among passers by in Mauritius as you do among college students in the USA!

Xygalatas, D. (2012). Effects of religious setting on cooperative behavior: a case study from Mauritius Religion, Brain & Behavior, 1-12 DOI: 10.1080/2153599X.2012.724547

This article by Tom Rees was first published on Epiphenom. It is licensed under Creative Commons.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

January 5, 2013

That was the year that was 2012

Next Post

January 19, 2013 Atheists prefer video games over board games

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Causes of religion - evolution Causes of religion - psychological Causes of religion - social Demographics Digest Effects of religion - health Effects of religion - psychological Effects of religion - social Notifications Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is the longest book of the Bible?

Select your answer to see how you score.

2 Chronicles Psalms Genesis Numbers