Journal
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR & ORGANIZATION
Volume 215, Issue -, Pages 479-489Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2023.09.025
Keywords
Religion; Prosociality; Human cooperation; Positive reciprocity; Altruism; Trust; Population; Institutions; Punishment
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This article provides empirical evidence on the relationship between religion and cooperation. The study finds that individuals who believe in religions exhibit more prosocial preferences. Additionally, the patterns of negative reciprocity and punishment vary across world religions. The association between religion and prosocial preferences is stronger in more populous societies and weaker in countries with better formal institutions. This suggests substitutability between religious and secular institutions in sustaining cooperation.
Social science research has stressed the important role of religion in sustaining cooperation among non-kin. We contribute to this multidisciplinary literature with a large-scale empirical study documenting the relationship between religion and cooperation. We analyze newly available, experimentally validated, and globally representative data on social preferences and world religions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism). We find that individuals who report believing in such religions exhibit more prosocial preferences, as measured by their levels of positive reciprocity, altruism and trust. We further document heterogeneous patterns of negative reciprocity and punishment-two key elements for cooperation-across world religions. The association between religion and prosocial preferences is stronger in more populous societies and weaker in countries with better formal institutions. The interactive results between these variables point again towards the substitutability between religious and secular institutions, when it comes to sustaining cooperation.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available