Religiosity and Prosocial Behavior Among Churchgoers: Exploring Underlying Mechanisms

Research has shown that religious beliefs and practices are related, to some extent, to prosocial behaviors, but less is known about why it is so. In addition, participating in the traditional Christian ritual (Sunday Mass) may be particularly powerful in eliciting prosocial behavior among believers...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Cappellen, Patty van (Author) ; Saroglou, Vassilis (Author) ; Toth-Gauthier, Maria (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group 2016
In: The international journal for the psychology of religion
Year: 2016, Volume: 26, Issue: 1, Pages: 19-30
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Electronic
Description
Summary:Research has shown that religious beliefs and practices are related, to some extent, to prosocial behaviors, but less is known about why it is so. In addition, participating in the traditional Christian ritual (Sunday Mass) may be particularly powerful in eliciting prosocial behavior among believers. The present study explores the aspects of the Sunday Mass that may be involved in the activation of religious prosociality. The social, emotional, and cognitive aspects of the Mass were concurrently assessed among churchgoers (n = 548) across 20 different parishes. Prosociality was measured by looking at spontaneous intention to share a hypothetical lottery prize. Results showed that a positive relation found between religion and prosociality was mediated by the social aspect of the Mass. Additional analyses revealed that this social aspect also induced the emotion of love, which in turn promoted prosociality.
ISSN:1532-7582
Contains:Enthalten in: The international journal for the psychology of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/10508619.2014.958004