Prosociality and religion

Abstract

Although self-reports suggest that religious individuals consider themselves universally prosocial, behavioral measures suggest a more limited prosociality and priming studies suggest a small causal relationship. Recent research has uncovered new moderators, with religiousness being more strongly related to prosociality under self-image threat, and when faced with a needier recipient. One major moderator remains the identity of the recipient: religious prosociality often favors religious ingroups over outgroups. Mechanisms of religious prosociality include supernatural monitoring and moral identity, with secular analogues such as priming civic institutions also having comparable effects. Further research is needed on determinants of parochial versus universal religious helping, and the circumstances under which each type of helping might be most adaptive.