IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/gunwpe/0331.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

In the back of your mind: Subliminal influences of religious concepts on prosocial behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Ahmed, Ali M.

    (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University)

  • Salas, Osvaldo

    (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University)

Abstract

Does religion enhance prosocial behavior? We investigate the ways in which implicit influences of religious concepts affect generosity and cooperation. In contrast to previous studies, we assess the direct impact of religion as an independent variable on prosocial behavior. We do so by subliminally priming participants with religious concepts in a scrambled sentence task before they play a dictator game and a prisoner’s dilemma game. We found that implicit priming of religious concepts significantly increased prosocial behavior in both games. This result was present among both religious and nonreligious participants. Selfreported measure of religiosity was related neither to generosity nor to cooperation.

Suggested Citation

  • Ahmed, Ali M. & Salas, Osvaldo, 2008. "In the back of your mind: Subliminal influences of religious concepts on prosocial behavior," Working Papers in Economics 331, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0331
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/18838
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kahneman, Daniel & Knetsch, Jack L & Thaler, Richard H, 1986. "Fairness and the Assumptions of Economics," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(4), pages 285-300, October.
    2. Ahmed, Ali M., 2007. "Group identity, social distance and intergroup bias," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 324-337, June.
    3. Olof Johansson‐Stenman & Minhaj Mahmud & Peter Martinsson, 2009. "Trust and Religion: Experimental Evidence from Rural Bangladesh," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 76(303), pages 462-485, July.
    4. Ruffle, Bradley J. & Sosis, Richard, 2006. "Cooperation and the in-group-out-group bias: A field test on Israeli kibbutz members and city residents," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 147-163, June.
    5. Dominic D. P. Johnson & Pavel Stopka & Stephen Knights, 2003. "The puzzle of human cooperation," Nature, Nature, vol. 421(6926), pages 911-912, February.
    6. Catherine C. Eckel & Philip J. Grossman, 2004. "Giving to Secular Causes by the Religious and Nonreligious: An Experimental Test of the Responsiveness of Giving to Subsidies," Monash Economics Working Papers archive-07, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    7. Henry Kaiser, 1958. "The varimax criterion for analytic rotation in factor analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 23(3), pages 187-200, September.
    8. Tan, Jonathan H.W., 2006. "Religion and social preferences: An experimental study," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 60-67, January.
    9. Henry Kaiser, 1970. "A second generation little jiffy," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 35(4), pages 401-415, December.
    10. Li, Baibing & Martin, Elaine B. & Morris, A. Julian, 2002. "On principal component analysis in L1," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 471-474, September.
    11. Henry Kaiser, 1974. "An index of factorial simplicity," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 39(1), pages 31-36, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. The Adam Smith Institute, Business Ethics, and the Ayn Rand Lecture
      by andrewdsmith in The Past Speaks on 2012-06-24 01:01:30

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ahmed, Ali M., 2008. "Are Religious People More Prosocial? A Quasi-Experimental Study with Madrasah Pupils in a Rural Community in India," Working Papers in Economics 330, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    2. Gupta, Gautam & Mahmud, Minhaj & Maitra, Pushkar & Mitra, Santanu & Neelim, Ananta, 2018. "Religion, minority status, and trust: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 180-205.
    3. Boschini, Anne & Muren, Astri & Persson, Mats, 2012. "Constructing gender differences in the economics lab," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 741-752.
    4. Shamette Hepburn, 2020. "Effect of Religiosity and Spirituality on Employees Prosocial Behavior With the Mediatory Role of Humanism and Ethics," International Journal of Social Work, Macrothink Institute, vol. 7(2), pages 17-36, December.
    5. Stachtiaris, Spiros & Drichoutis, Andreas & Nayga, Rodolfo & Klonaris, Stathis, 2011. "Can religious priming induce truthful preference revelation?," MPRA Paper 34433, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ahmed, Ali M., 2008. "Are Religious People More Prosocial? A Quasi-Experimental Study with Madrasah Pupils in a Rural Community in India," Working Papers in Economics 330, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    2. Robert Hoffmann, 2013. "The Experimental Economics Of Religion," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(5), pages 813-845, December.
    3. Robert Hoffmann, 2013. "The Experimental Economics Of Religion," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(5), pages 813-845, December.
    4. Lyndon Lim & Elaine Chapman, 2022. "Development and Preliminary Validation of the Moral Reasoning Questionnaire for Secondary School Students," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(1), pages 21582440221, March.
    5. Ahmed, Ali & Salas, Osvaldo, 2008. "Is the Hand of God Involved in Human Cooperation? An Experimental Examination of the Supernatural Punishment Theory," CAFO Working Papers 2009:1, Linnaeus University, Centre for Labour Market Policy Research (CAFO), School of Business and Economics.
    6. Federica Bandini & Enrico Supino, 2015. "Imprese sociali operanti in ambito sanitario: un?indagine esplorativa sui requisiti di aziendalit?," MECOSAN, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(93), pages 115-136.
    7. Ahmed, Ali M. & Salas, Osvaldo, 2008. "Is The Hand Of God Involved In Human Cooperation?An Experimental Examination Of The Supernatural Punishment Theory," CAFO Working Papers 2008:1, Linnaeus University, Centre for Labour Market Policy Research (CAFO), School of Business and Economics.
    8. Abdul Manaf, Nor Aziah & Mas'ud, Abdulsalam & Ishak, Zuaini & Saad, Natrah & Russell, Alex, 2016. "Towards establishing a scale for assessing the attractiveness of petroleum fiscal regimes – Evidence from Malaysia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 253-261.
    9. Mohan Khanal & Sudip Raj Khadka & Harendra Subedi & Indra Prasad Chaulagain & Lok Nath Regmi & Mohan Bhandari, 2023. "Explaining the Factors Affecting Customer Satisfaction at the Fintech Firm F1 Soft by Using PCA and XAI," FinTech, MDPI, vol. 2(1), pages 1-15, January.
    10. Mahrouz Nourali, 2023. "Improved Treatment of Model Prediction Uncertainty: Estimating Rainfall using Discrete Wavelet Transform and Principal Component Analysis," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 37(11), pages 4211-4231, September.
    11. Alin Opreana & Simona Vinerean & Diana Marieta Mihaiu & Liliana Barbu & Radu-Alexandru Șerban, 2023. "Fuzzy Analytic Network Process with Principal Component Analysis to Establish a Bank Performance Model under the Assumption of Country Risk," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-38, July.
    12. Tom Lane, 2015. "Discrimination in the laboratory: a meta-analysis," Discussion Papers 2015-03, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    13. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2019. "Governance, capital flight and industrialisation in Africa," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 8(1), pages 1-22, December.
    14. Rodríguez-Fuentes, Carlos Javier & Hernández-López, Montserrat, 1997. "Análisis de diferencias estructurales interregionales determinantes en el impacto de la política monetaria," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 7, pages 141-157, Junio.
    15. Belén Casales Morici, 2022. "Strategic corporate entrepreneurship practices in financial services firms: the role of organizational factors," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(9), pages 1-26, September.
    16. Asongu, Simplice A & Odhiambo, Nicholas M, 2019. "Governance,CO2 emissions and inclusive human development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers 25253, University of South Africa, Department of Economics.
    17. Shobande, Olatunji A. & Asongu, Simplice A., 2022. "The Critical Role of Education and ICT in Promoting Environmental Sustainability in Eastern and Southern Africa: A Panel VAR Approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    18. Amavilah, Voxi & Asongu, Simplice A. & Andrés, Antonio R., 2017. "Effects of globalization on peace and stability: Implications for governance and the knowledge economy of African countries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 91-103.
    19. Dimitrova-Grajzl Valentina & Grajzl Peter & Guse A. Joseph & Smith J. Taylor, 2016. "Racial Group Affinity and Religious Giving: Evidence from Congregation-Level Panel Data," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 16(2), pages 689-725, April.
    20. Hauck, Jana & Suess-Reyes, Julia & Beck, Susanne & Prügl, Reinhard & Frank, Hermann, 2016. "Measuring socioemotional wealth in family-owned and -managed firms: A validation and short form of the FIBER Scale," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 133-148.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    religion; priming; dictator game; prisoner’s dilemma game;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C90 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - General
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0331. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jessica Oscarsson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/naiguse.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.