Is God Really Watching You? A Response to Shariff and Norenzayan (2007)

Randolph-Seng, Brandon; Nielsen, Michael

doi:10.1080/10508610701879373

Cited by 27 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 3 publications

(1 reference statement)

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“…We found that donations to an environmental organization were positively associated with spiritual oneness. Recent findings suggest that exposure to religious words can promote pro‐social behavior (e.g., Randolph‐Seng and Nielsen ; Shariff and Norenzayan ), although at least some of these effects may be limited to in‐group members (see Johnson, Rowatt, and LaBouff ), and the exact mechanism is unclear (e.g., Randolph‐Seng and Nielsen ; Shariff and Norenzayan ). Perhaps oneness beliefs can promote pro‐social behavior by tapping directly into the universal goodwill championed by most religious and spiritual traditions, as those who believe themselves to be deeply interconnected with other people should also exhibit more supportive behavior toward others.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Oneness Beliefs Scale: Connecting Spirituality with Pro‐Environmental Behavior

Garfield

Drwecki

Moore

et al. 2014

Scientific Study of Religion

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The inherent unity of all phenomena, or oneness, is a central concept of mysticism, but there have heretofore been no measures of oneness beliefs. We developed the Oneness Beliefs Scale, with spiritual and physical oneness subscales. The spiritual oneness subscale fills a need in the field for a short, reliable measure of spirituality not characterized by the language of traditional Western religiousness. The physical oneness subscale allows researchers to juxtapose spiritual beliefs with a nonspiritual, materialist counterpart. We found that spiritual oneness beliefs were more strongly related to mystic experiences and spirituality than to traditional religiousness. Physical oneness was not strongly associated with either religiousness or spirituality. Both spiritual and physical oneness were positively associated with pro‐environmental attitudes but not with depression, anxiety, or negative affect. Spiritual oneness was a better predictor of pro‐environmental attitudes than was religiousness. Spiritual oneness also predicted donating to a pro‐environmental group, making this to our knowledge the first empirical study to show a positive association between a religion or spirituality measure and observed, rather than self‐reported, pro‐environmental behavior.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Oneness Beliefs Scale: Connecting Spirituality with Pro‐Environmental Behavior

Garfield

Drwecki

Moore

et al. 2014

Scientific Study of Religion

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“…One possible mechanism might be related to social factors. The temple is a meeting place for the community, which might have an influence on prosociality simply by virtue of its association with sociality (Randolph-Seng & Nielsen, 2008). Although this is generally a plausible explanation, this study attempted to control for such effects: the comparison group was not situated in a laboratory or any random venue but rather in a restaurant, a setting that was not only similar in arrangement but also an alternative locus for social interaction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of religious setting on cooperative behavior: a case study from Mauritius

Xygalatas

2013

Religion, Brain & Behavior

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Social scientists and folk wisdom have both claimed that there is an association between religiosity and prosocial behavior, but hard evidence for such a relationship is limited. Studies show that religiosity is correlated with selfreported prosociality; however, this relationship is not very clear when it comes to observed prosocial behaviors. Experimental studies reveal a link between religious priming and prosocial behaviors, and these effects are evident irrespective of the degree of religiosity of the participant. Building on and combining the strengths of previous field designs, I report on the results of a field experiment in Mauritius examining the effects of religious environments on cooperation in a naturalistic setting. These results were consistent with previous findings that religious cues increase cooperation. Importantly, this effect was not dependent on degrees of prior religiosity. Plausible interpretations of such effects are discussed. positive correlation between intrinsic religiosity and prosocial behavior (Saroglou et al., 2005; Soler, 2012), most others show that such a correlation is either

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“…[22]). Norenzayan et al [33] argue that behavioural priming effects are 'typically impervious to prior explicit beliefs or attitudes' (p. 532).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the present study, we sought to investigate this issue. In order to minimize demand characteristics [22], we decided to present primes subliminally. Our research questions were threefold: (i) would participants primed with the concepts of religion and/or punishment punish more in a punishment game?…”

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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Is God Really Watching You? A Response to Shariff and Norenzayan (2007)

Cited by 27 publications

References 3 publications

The Oneness Beliefs Scale: Connecting Spirituality with Pro‐Environmental Behavior

The Oneness Beliefs Scale: Connecting Spirituality with Pro‐Environmental Behavior

Effects of religious setting on cooperative behavior: a case study from Mauritius

Wrath of God: religious primes and punishment

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