Religion, Rewards, and Prosocial Behavior

<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>

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Campus Access Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Year

2010

Author dc:creator

• Harrell, Lauren Ashley

Contributors dc:contributor

• Brent T. Simpson

• Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Sociology
• Priming
• Prosocial Behavior
• Religion
• Rewards

Statement dc:rights

• © 2010, Lauren Ashley Harrell

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/181

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarcommons.sc.edu:etd-1182