Honesty: One Effect of Primed Religious Representations

Randolph-Seng, Brandon; Nielsen, Michael

doi:10.1080/10508610701572812

Cited by 260 publications

(193 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Though individuals may have reduced the degree to which they engaged in the costly punishment of norm violators, deterrence levels may have been maintained by the additional threat of divine punishment. The threat of punishment from powerful, omniscient and intervening Gods can be even more effective at deterring counter-normative behaviour than the threat of punishment from one's peers [19,31,37,38]. Moreover, our findings fit well with historical records indicating that powerful, intervening 'high Gods' were most likely to emerge in large societies, or those with resources shortages, both of which have particularly high needs for regulating and enforcing cooperation [44,45].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

“…However, this prediction may also appear somewhat counterintuitive: Religious beliefs, in general, are positively associated with both punishment [35,36] and prosocial behaviour (e.g. [37,38]) including altruistic punishment [13]. In contrast to these findings, we predict that the specific belief in powerful, morally involved Gods should decrease altruistic punishment, as well as support for state-sponsored punishment, of norm violators.…”

Section: Prior Researchcontrasting

confidence: 61%

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Outsourcing punishment to God: beliefs in divine control reduce earthly punishment

et al. 2012

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The sanctioning of norm-transgressors is a necessary-though often costly-task for maintaining a wellfunctioning society. Prior to effective and reliable secular institutions for punishment, large-scale societies depended on individuals engaging in 'altruistic punishment'-bearing the costs of punishment individually, for the benefit of society. Evolutionary approaches to religion suggest that beliefs in powerful, moralizing Gods, who can distribute rewards and punishments, emerged as a way to augment earthly punishment in large societies that could not effectively monitor norm violations. In five studies, we investigate whether such beliefs in God can replace people's motivation to engage in altruistic punishment, and their support for state-sponsored punishment. Results show that, although religiosity generally predicts higher levels of punishment, the specific belief in powerful, intervening Gods reduces altruistic punishment and support for state-sponsored punishment. Moreover, these effects are specifically owing to differences in people's perceptions that humans are responsible for punishing wrongdoers.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: Prior Researchcontrasting

confidence: 61%

Outsourcing punishment to God: beliefs in divine control reduce earthly punishment

et al. 2012

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“…Recent studies indicate that priming participants with religious concepts promotes prosocial behaviour (e.g. [17,19]). Our aim in the present experiment was to investigate whether religious priming would also promote the costly punishment of unfair behaviour.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similar results have been found in other recent priming studies. For example, relative to control participants, participants primed with religious or supernatural concepts have been found to cheat less [18,19], to collect more charity pamphlets [20] and to be more likely to cooperate in a Prisoner's Dilemma game [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wrath of God: religious primes and punishment

et al. 2010

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Recent evidence indicates that priming participants with religious concepts promotes prosocial sharing behaviour. In the present study, we investigated whether religious priming also promotes the costly punishment of unfair behaviour. A total of 304 participants played a punishment game. Before the punishment stage began, participants were subliminally primed with religion primes, secular punishment primes or control primes. We found that religious primes strongly increased the costly punishment of unfair behaviours for a subset of our participants-those who had previously donated to a religious organization. We discuss two proximate mechanisms potentially underpinning this effect. The first is a 'supernatural watcher' mechanism, whereby religious participants punish unfair behaviours when primed because they sense that not doing so will enrage or disappoint an observing supernatural agent. The second is a 'behavioural priming' mechanism, whereby religious primes activate cultural norms pertaining to fairness and its enforcement and occasion behaviour consistent with those norms. We conclude that our results are consistent with dual inheritance proposals about religion and cooperation, whereby religions harness the byproducts of genetically inherited cognitive mechanisms in ways that enhance the survival prospects of their adherents.

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“…Some religious beliefs and practices are also associated with greater well-being (Myers, 2000;Whittington & Scher, 2010) and with better mental and physical health (Hill & Pargament, 2003). Religion can assist in creating cohesive moral communities (Graham & Haidt, 2010) and can lead people to behave more prosocially (Randolph-Seng & Nielsen, 2007;Shariff & Norenzayan, 2007). On the negative side, religion can also make people behave more prejudicially (Allport & Ross, 1967;Hall, Matz, & Wood, 2010).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Divergent effects of activating thoughts of God on self-regulation.

Laurin

Kay

Fitzsimons

2012

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

138

104

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Despite the cultural ubiquity of ideas and images related to God, relatively little is known about the effects of exposure to God representations on behavior. Specific depictions of God differ across religions, but common to most is that God is (a) an omnipotent, controlling force and (b) an omniscient, all-knowing being. Given these 2 characteristic features, how might exposure to the concept of God influence behavior? Leveraging classic and recent theorizing on self-regulation and social cognition, we predict and test for 2 divergent effects of exposure to notions of God on self-regulatory processes. Specifically, we show that participants reminded of God (vs. neutral or positive concepts) demonstrate both decreased active goal pursuit (Studies 1, 2, and 5) and increased temptation resistance (Studies 3, 4, and 5). These findings provide the first experimental evidence that exposure to God influences goal pursuit and suggest that the ever-present cultural reminders of God can be both burden and benefit for self-regulation.

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Honesty: One Effect of Primed Religious Representations

Cited by 260 publications

References 18 publications

Outsourcing punishment to God: beliefs in divine control reduce earthly punishment

Outsourcing punishment to God: beliefs in divine control reduce earthly punishment

Wrath of God: religious primes and punishment

Divergent effects of activating thoughts of God on self-regulation.

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