When God is Watching, People Are More Generous.

Psychology Today by Gad Saad | Nov. 9, 2009 (Opinion)

(Blog Post) One argument in support of religiosity is that it makes people more moral. I am not particularly moved by this premise, as I find it a lot more impressive to be ethical, moral, kind, honest, and decent for reasons other than the fact that a "celestial dictator" (to borrow Christopher Hitchens' brilliant term) is watching over me. Moral and immoral acts are committed both by atheists and believers so neither group holds a monopoly over either form of behaviors. Full Story »

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 by Derek Hawkins - Nov. 9, 2009

in the first study, they either primed participants with God concepts or did not prime them at all. Subsequently, they had them play an anonymous dictator game (i.e., they could not see individual B) with $10 (in one-dollar coins). People who were primed with God concepts offered $4.22 versus $1.84 in the no-prime condition. In the second study, the researchers had three priming conditions: God-prime, neutral-prime, and secular-prime (i.e., priming words such as “civic”, “duty”, and "police"). The offers were as follows: $4.60 in the God-prime, $4.40 in the secular-prime, and $2.60 in the neutral-prime condition. Hence, whereas the God and secular primes yielded roughly equal offers, both were higher than the neutral prime.

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