Researchers have long argued that religion increases prosocial behavior, but results are equivocal. Recent findings on priming religious concepts seem to show that religion drives prosociality. But here I suggest that these studies confound religion with anticipated rewards. I present the results of a new experiment that primes reward-related and reward-unrelated religious or secular concepts. Results show that priming reward-related concepts positively impacts prosocial behavior, regardless of their religious content. Religious cognitions alone are not sufficient to elicit prosocial behavior; reward cognitions must be present as well.
","abstract_html":"<p>Researchers have long argued that religion increases prosocial behavior, but results are equivocal. Recent findings on priming religious concepts seem to show that religion drives prosociality. But here I suggest that these studies confound religion with anticipated rewards. I present the results of a new experiment that primes reward-related and reward-unrelated religious or secular concepts. Results show that priming reward-related concepts positively impacts prosocial behavior, regardless of their religious content. Religious cognitions alone are not sufficient to elicit prosocial behavior; reward cognitions must be present as well.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Harrell, Lauren Ashley"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"M.A.","degree_level":"Campus Access Thesis","degree_discipline":"Sociology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Brent T. Simpson"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2010,"date_issued":"2010-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2010-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:37:21Z","subjects":["Social and Behavioral Sciences","Sociology","Priming","Prosocial Behavior","Religion","Rewards"],"languages":[],"rights":["© 2010, Lauren Ashley Harrell"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/181","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Brent T. Simpson"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Harrell, Lauren Ashley"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Sociology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Campus Access Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.A."]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Social and Behavioral Sciences","Sociology","Priming","Prosocial Behavior","Religion","Rewards"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["© 2010, Lauren Ashley Harrell"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/181"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Researchers have long argued that religion increases prosocial behavior, but results are equivocal. Recent findings on priming religious concepts seem to show that religion drives prosociality. But here I suggest that these studies confound religion with anticipated rewards. I present the results of a new experiment that primes reward-related and reward-unrelated religious or secular concepts. Results show that priming reward-related concepts positively impacts prosocial behavior, regardless of their religious content. Religious cognitions alone are not sufficient to elicit prosocial behavior; reward cognitions must be present as well.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Religion, Rewards, and Prosocial Behavior"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Brent T. Simpson"],"dc:creator":["Harrell, Lauren Ashley"],"dc:description.abstract":["Researchers have long argued that religion increases prosocial behavior, but results are equivocal. Recent findings on priming religious concepts seem to show that religion drives prosociality. But here I suggest that these studies confound religion with anticipated rewards. I present the results of a new experiment that primes reward-related and reward-unrelated religious or secular concepts. Results show that priming reward-related concepts positively impacts prosocial behavior, regardless of their religious content. Religious cognitions alone are not sufficient to elicit prosocial behavior; reward cognitions must be present as well.
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