The God Effect : Does Thinking of an Omniscient God Promote Altruism?


	The God Effect : Does Thinking of an Omniscient God Promote Altruism?

Djiezes

12-9-2007 6:50 AM

961 views

tags:

morality, ethics, experiment, study, game theory, god, religion, dictator, psychology, society

3 Comments |

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12-9-2007 10:25 PM

syncopath

may be, after all, generosity is omnipotent .... ))

12-11-2007 7:37 AM

AcesLucky

Let us not confuse altruism with the fear of judgment or punishment. If one is kind out of fear of punishment, that's not exactly altruism, is it? It's self preservation.

The true altruist is kind and fair in the "absence" of judgment.

12-11-2007 9:57 AM

Melrond

AcesLucky, you make a very good point!

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</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09_21_godeffect.html?ex=1354856400&en=976bb111f2790dc2&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss">the so-called “dictator game,” a common way of measuring generosity toward strangers. The game is simple: you’re offered 10 $1 coins and told to take as many as you want and leave the rest for the player in the other room</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09_21_godeffect.html?ex=1354856400&en=976bb111f2790dc2&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss">the “God prime” worked like a charm, leading to fairer splits. Without the God prime, only 12 percent of the participants split the money evenly, but when primed with the religious words, 52 percent did.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09_21_godeffect.html?ex=1354856400&en=976bb111f2790dc2&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss">In a second study, the researchers had participants unscramble sentences containing words like <I>civic, contract</I> and <I>police </I>— meant to evoke secular moral institutions. This prime also increased generosity. And unlike the religious prime, it did so consistently for both believers and nonbelievers.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/FFFB9BEE-0ED4-4292-A477-AD34445E1DDE/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>