Pro-Social Behavior: Contributions of Religiosity, Empathic Concern, and Spirituality

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between empathy, antisocial behavior, religiosity, and spirituality as causal variables of pro-social behavior. The study has also considered the influence of other variables such as age, sex, religious creed, and ethnicity in a Catholic sample of Bolivian university students. A preliminary conceptual model of empathic concern was proposed based on the studied variables. While the relationship between religiosity and pro-social behavior did not prove to be very sound, the results did show strong ties between pro-social behavior, empathy, and spirituality, revealing how these variables contribute to explaining such behavior. The output of the modeling process indicates (verified through standardized weights) that at least three of the four latent variables included in the model showed a relevant influence on pro-social behavior (empathy, religiosity, and spirituality). Antisocial behavior was dismissed as a source of an endogenous variable explanation. Although the model seems to be acceptable, some adjustments are needed to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the empathy-a pro-social conceptual framework.Keywords Pro-social behavior . Empathic concern . Religiosity . Spirituality Statements such as BDon't do unto others what you don't want others to do unto you^, attributed to Buddha, or BLove your neighbor as yourself^of the Christian gospels 1 , or BDo good to others without expecting anything in return^, and many other similar expressions shared by different religions tell us much about the importance that sacred Int J Lat Am Relig (2017) Batson et al. 1993;Yodrabum 2005;Hardy and Carlo 2005) consider the religious experience, the practice of faith, instilling moral thinking, sharing, cooperating, and promoting pro-social behavior as a wide range of actions that seek to benefit one or more people (Batson 1998). On the other hand, there are reasons to believe that individuals are usually generous, cooperative, concerned, and trustworthy, and it is assumed that religious people are more likely to show such attributes. Therefore, religiosity could be considered as a predictor of kindness and understanding as well as emotional pro-social altruism (Hardy and Carlo 2005).However, a growing number of studies question the relationship between religious practices and pro-social behavior, making it necessary to deepen its analysis and review its underlying theoretical assumptions. The existing scientific literature related to this topic is far from having achieved a full agreement on the existence of evidence for such a relationship and, rather, reveals contradictions regarding the influence of religiosity on pro-social behavior.While there is little doubt about the relationship as such, the controversy arises when discussing the causal status of religiosity. This seems to be related to the complexities of the multidimensional nature of the pro-social theoretical construct and the notion of religiosity. For example, it is evident that som...

Prososyallik, Empatik Eğilim ve Dindarlık Arasındaki İlişkiler Üzerine Bir Araştırma

“…Empati ile dindarlık arasındaki pozitif yönlü ilişkiye yönelik başka çalışmalar da mevcuttur (Watson vd., 1985;Francis -Pearson, 1987;Duriez, 2004;Paek, 2006;Damiano vd., 2017;Roth, 2017).…”

Love for Allah and love for others: exploring the connection between religious affect and empathy among Muslim adolescents in England

“…Within this literature seminal efforts were made by C. D. Batson to explore the visible connections between religion, altruistic behaviour, and the underlying psychological construct of empathy (see Batson, Schoenrade, & Pych, 1985). Batson and his colleagues argued that the theological account of the relationship between empathy and religion derives from the theory that religion promotes helping behaviour, as exemplified within both the New Testament and the Qur'an, while empathy is understood as fundamental to helping and pro-social behaviour (Rushton, 1980;Batson & Shaw, 1991;Roth, 2017;Silke, Brady, Boylan, & Dolan, 2018).…”

“…A second strand of empirical research within the psychology of religion has involved examining the direct relationship between psychometric measures of empathy and measures of religion or spirituality. Examples of this strand of research are provided by Watson, Hood, Morris, and Hall (1984), Watson, Hood, and Morris (1985), Francis and Pearson (1987), Duriez (2004), Furrow, King, andWhite (2004), Khan, Watson, andHabib (2005), Paek (2006), Francis (2007), Markstrom, Huey, Stilos, andKraus (2010), Francis, Croft, andPyke (2012), Hardy, Walker, Rackham, and Olsen (2012), Huber andMacDonald (2012), Ayten (2013), Glaz (2015), Rashidi, Mousavi, and Esmaeili (2016), Damiano et al (2017), Francis, Lewis, andMcKenna (2017), Roth (2017), Lowicki and Zajenkowska (2017), Ward and King (2018), Stewart, Lawrence, and Burg (2019) and Stewart and Lawrence (2020). Taken together these studies demonstrate that the relationship between religiosity and empathy may vary according to the conceptualisation and operationalisation of religiosity employed and according to the conceptualisation and operationalisation of empathy employed.…”

Modern homophobia among heterosexual Romanian adults: the roles of sexual orientation beliefs, religiosity, perceived social roles, and social media use

“…Moreover, religiosity seems to have a significant influence on social behavior and attitudes in various fields ( Donahue and Nielsen, 2005 ). For instance, several studies suggested that religious individuals might be more likely to engage in pro-social behaviors such as volunteering, donating to charity, and helping others ( Roth, 2017 ). However, religious individuals might also tend to hold negative attitudes toward marginalized groups such as LGBTQ+ individuals or those of other faiths ( Westwood, 2022 ).…”