Are Highly Religious People Less Compassionate?
By RICK NAUERT PHD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 1, 2012
A provocative new study from the University of California, Berkeley
suggests highly religious individuals are less likely to help a stranger
than less religious people.

In three experiments, researchers discovered the highly religious are
less motivated by compassion when helping a stranger than are atheists,
agnostics and less religious people.

Paradoxically, social scientists found that compassion consistently
drove less religious people to be more generous. For highly religious
people, however, compassion was largely unrelated to how generous they
were.

The findings will be published in the July issue of the journal Social
Psychological and Personality Science.

Experts say the results challenge a widespread assumption that acts of
generosity and charity are largely driven by feelings of empathy and
compassion.

In the study, researchers discovered the link between compassion and
generosity was found to be stronger for those who identified as being
non-religious or less religious.

?Overall, we find that for less religious people, the strength of their
emotional connection to another person is critical to whether they will
help that person or not,? said UC Berkeley social psychologist Dr. Robb
Willer, a co-author of the study.

?The more religious, on the other hand, may ground their generosity less
in emotion, and more in other factors such as doctrine, a communal
identity, or reputational concerns.?

Compassion is defined in the study as an emotion felt when people see
the suffering of others which then motivates them to help, often at a
personal risk or cost.

While the study examined the link between religion, compassion and
generosity, it did not directly examine the reasons for why highly
religious people are less compelled by compassion to help others.

However, researchers hypothesize that deeply religious people may be
more strongly guided by a sense of moral obligation than their more non-
religious counterparts.

?We hypothesized that religion would change how compassion impacts
generous behavior,? said study lead author Laura Saslow, Ph.D.

Saslow said she was inspired to examine this question after an
altruistic, nonreligious friend lamented that he had only donated to
earthquake recovery efforts in Haiti after watching an emotionally
stirring video of a woman being saved from the rubble, not because of a
logical understanding that help was needed.

?I was interested to find that this experience ? an atheist being
strongly influenced by his emotions to show generosity to strangers ?
was replicated in three large, systematic studies,? Saslow said.

In the first experiment, researchers analyzed data from a 2004 national
survey of more than 1,300 American adults. Those who agreed with such
statements as ?When I see someone being taken advantage of, I feel kind
of protective towards them? were also more inclined to show generosity
in random acts of kindness, such as loaning out belongings and offering
a seat on a crowded bus or train, researchers found.

When they looked into how much compassion motivated participants to be
charitable in such ways as giving money or food to a homeless person,
non-believers and those who rated low in religiosity came out ahead.

?These findings indicate that although compassion is associated with
[people being more social] among both less religious and more religious
individuals, this relationship is particularly robust for less religious
individuals,? say the researchers.

In the second experiment, 101 American adults watched one of two brief
videos, a neutral video or a heartrending one, which showed portraits of
children afflicted by poverty. Next, they were each given 10 ?lab
dollars? and directed to give any amount of that money to a stranger.

The least religious participants appeared to be motivated by the
emotionally charged video to give more of their money to a stranger.

?The compassion-inducing video had a big effect on their generosity,?
Willer said. ?But it did not significantly change the generosity of more
religious participants.?

In the final experiment, more than 200 college students were asked to
report how compassionate they felt at that moment. They then played
?economic trust games? in which they were given money to share ? or not
? with a stranger.

In one round, they were told that another person playing the game had
given a portion of their money to them, and that they were free to
reward them by giving back some of the money, which had since doubled in
amount.

Those who scored low on the religiosity scale, and high on momentary
compassion, were more inclined to share their winnings with strangers
than other participants in the study.

?Overall, this research suggests that although less religious people
tend to be less trusted in the U.S., when feeling compassionate, they
may actually be more inclined to help their fellow citizens than more
religious people,? Willer said.

On 5/2/2012 8:32 AM, iBoaterer wrote:
Are Highly Religious People Less Compassionate?

I hope that Brekley tripe wasn't publicly funded

On 5/2/12 11:53 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 02 May 2012 11:25:43 -0400, wrote:

On 5/2/2012 8:32 AM, iBoaterer wrote:
Are Highly Religious People Less Compassionate?

I hope that Brekley tripe wasn't publicly funded


I understand it was funded by the Southern Baptist Convention.


Let's hope this doesn't devolve into blaming Jesus for Christianity.
After all, he had nothing to do with it.

In article ,
says...

On Wed, 02 May 2012 11:25:43 -0400, Oscar wrote:

On 5/2/2012 8:32 AM, iBoaterer wrote:
Are Highly Religious People Less Compassionate?

I hope that Brekley tripe wasn't publicly funded


I understand it was funded by the Southern Baptist Convention.

What difference does it make where it originated? Of course the poster
couldn't deny the facts!!!

On 5/2/2012 11:53 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 02 May 2012 11:25:43 -0400, wrote:

On 5/2/2012 8:32 AM, iBoaterer wrote:
Are Highly Religious People Less Compassionate?

I hope that Brekley tripe wasn't publicly funded


I understand it was funded by the Southern Baptist Convention.

Whatever. As long as my tax bucks didn't pay for it.

Breckley translates to Berkley BTW

On 5/2/2012 1:07 PM, iBoaterer wrote:
In ,
says...

On Wed, 02 May 2012 11:25:43 -0400, wrote:

On 5/2/2012 8:32 AM, iBoaterer wrote:
Are Highly Religious People Less Compassionate?

I hope that Brekley tripe wasn't publicly funded


I understand it was funded by the Southern Baptist Convention.

What difference does it make where it originated? Of course the poster
couldn't deny the facts!!!

What facts are we talking about?