PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Highly religious people are less motivated by compassion than are non-believers

UC Berkeley study finds atheists, agnostics and less religious people are more driven by compassion to be generous

2012-05-01
(Press-News.org) "Love thy neighbor" is preached from many a pulpit. But new research from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that the highly religious are less motivated by compassion when helping a stranger than are atheists, agnostics and less religious people.

In three experiments, social scientists found that compassion consistently drove less religious people to be more generous. For highly religious people, however, compassion was largely unrelated to how generous they were, according to the findings which are published in the July issue of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

The results challenge a widespread assumption that acts of generosity and charity are largely driven by feelings of empathy and compassion, researchers said. In the study, the link between compassion and generosity was found to be stronger for those who identified as being non-religious or less religious.

"Overall, we find that for less religious people, the strength of their emotional connection to another person is critical to whether they will help that person or not," said UC Berkeley social psychologist Robb Willer, a co-author of the study. "The more religious, on the other hand, may ground their generosity less in emotion, and more in other factors such as doctrine, a communal identity, or reputational concerns."

Compassion is defined in the study as an emotion felt when people see the suffering of others which then motivates them to help, often at a personal risk or cost.

While the study examined the link between religion, compassion and generosity, it did not directly examine the reasons for why highly religious people are less compelled by compassion to help others. However, researchers hypothesize that deeply religious people may be more strongly guided by a sense of moral obligation than their more non-religious counterparts.

"We hypothesized that religion would change how compassion impacts generous behavior," said study lead author Laura Saslow, who conducted the research as a doctoral student at UC Berkeley.

Saslow, who is now a postdoctoral scholar at UC San Francisco, said she was inspired to examine this question after an altruistic, nonreligious friend lamented that he had only donated to earthquake recovery efforts in Haiti after watching an emotionally stirring video of a woman being saved from the rubble, not because of a logical understanding that help was needed.

"I was interested to find that this experience – an atheist being strongly influenced by his emotions to show generosity to strangers – was replicated in three large, systematic studies," Saslow said.

In the first experiment, researchers analyzed data from a 2004 national survey of more than 1,300 American adults. Those who agreed with such statements as "When I see someone being taken advantage of, I feel kind of protective towards them" were also more inclined to show generosity in random acts of kindness, such as loaning out belongings and offering a seat on a crowded bus or train, researchers found.

When they looked into how much compassion motivated participants to be charitable in such ways as giving money or food to a homeless person, non-believers and those who rated low in religiosity came out ahead: "These findings indicate that although compassion is associated with pro-sociality among both less religious and more religious individuals, this relationship is particularly robust for less religious individuals," the study found.

In the second experiment, 101 American adults watched one of two brief videos, a neutral video or a heartrending one, which showed portraits of children afflicted by poverty. Next, they were each given 10 "lab dollars" and directed to give any amount of that money to a stranger. The least religious participants appeared to be motivated by the emotionally charged video to give more of their money to a stranger.

"The compassion-inducing video had a big effect on their generosity," Willer said. "But it did not significantly change the generosity of more religious participants."

In the final experiment, more than 200 college students were asked to report how compassionate they felt at that moment. They then played "economic trust games" in which they were given money to share – or not – with a stranger. In one round, they were told that another person playing the game had given a portion of their money to them, and that they were free to reward them by giving back some of the money, which had since doubled in amount.

Those who scored low on the religiosity scale, and high on momentary compassion, were more inclined to share their winnings with strangers than other participants in the study.

"Overall, this research suggests that although less religious people tend to be less trusted in the U.S., when feeling compassionate, they may actually be more inclined to help their fellow citizens than more religious people," Willer said.

INFORMATION:

In addition to Saslow and Willer, other co-authors of the study are UC Berkeley psychologists Dacher Keltner, Matthew Feinberg and Paul Piff; Katharine Clark at the University of Colorado, Boulder; and Sarina Saturn at Oregon State University.

The study was funded by grants from UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, UC Berkeley's Center for the Economics and Demography of Aging, and the Metanexus Institute.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

System helps public health officials identify priorities to better allocate resources

System helps public health officials identify priorities to better allocate resources
2012-05-01
COLUMBIA, Mo. – As the United States grapples with health care reform, much attention has focused on the importance of preventative health care. Now, a researcher at the University of Missouri has developed a system that could help public health care organizations determine the best method of allocating resources by prioritizing health risk factors and conditions – in some cases before these conditions become major health problems. "Every state, county and community has different trends and needs in public health," said Eduardo Simoes, chair of the Department of Health ...

Superwomen Boot Camp Expands With New Times And Days

2012-05-01
Folsom fitness expert and owner of Superwomen Boot Camp (SWBC), Val Fujii is proud to announce that he has added a 5pm class to the Folsom SWBC afternoon lineup. In addition, the days for afternoon classes have changed effective this week. Afternoon classes are now held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 4pm, 5pm and 6pm. These classes are in addition to the boot camp's morning offerings on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 6am and 7am. According to Fujii, Superwomen Boot Camp is not your typical 'hard core' boot camp - no one is going to yell in your face or ...

How to put some spring in your spring cleaning efforts

2012-05-01
The problem with clutter is, well, the clutter. Being unable to part with things can prolong some spring cleanings into a summer project. And nobody wants to be stuck inside decluttering once the weather gets nice. Certified Professional Organizer Wendy Arundel, owner and manager of The Mudroom, a Wellesley-based company serving Greater Boston, suggests a more practical, less emotional approach to a spring cleaning/decluttering. âEURœYour focus really needs to be on how decluttering your space will improve your life and your living environment. You might even want ...

'Cloud' computing technology should make sharing medical images easier and more efficient

2012-05-01
Patients find "cloud" technology a faster, more efficient way to store and distribute their medical images than current options, according to the preliminary findings of an image sharing project led by The Mount Sinai Medical Center in conjunction with four other academic medical institutions. The Phase I results of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Image Share project are being presented today at the American Roentgen Ray Society Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada. Mount Sinai was the first site to go live in August 2011 and currently has about 190 patients ...

Avastin and Lucentis are equivalent in treating age-related macular degeneration

2012-05-01
At two years, Avastin (bevacizumab) and Lucentis (ranibizumab injection), two widely used drugs to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD), improve vision when administered monthly or on an as needed basis, although greater improvements in vision were seen with monthly administration for this common, debilitating eye disease, according to researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health. Of the two drugs, Avastin is most frequently used to treat AMD. However, prior to the Comparison of AMD Treatments Trials (CATT), a two-year clinical trial, the two ...

According to Milton Collier, Over the Road Doctor is an innovative healthcare solution that provides drivers with 24/7/365 access to doctors.

2012-05-01
According to Milton Collier, Over the Road Doctor (www.OverTheRoadDoc.com) is an innovative healthcare solution that provides drivers with 24/7/365 access to doctors who can resolve many of your medical issues, or a U.S. board-certified TeleHealth doctor, through the convenience of phone or online video consultations. It's quality medical care when and where you need it. The Over the Road Doctor (OTR Doc) partnership network is the first and largest provider of telehealth medical consultations in the U.S., serving over 3 million members. Healthcare expenses, premiums ...

Only 1 in 5 bike share cyclists wears a helmet

2012-05-01
BOSTON – A national rise in public bike sharing programs could mean less air pollution and more exercise, an environmental and health win-win for people in the cities that host them, but according to researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, more than 80 percent of bike share riders are putting themselves at significant health risk by not wearing helmets. "Head injury accounts for about a third of all bicycle injuries and about three-quarters of bicycle related deaths, so these are some pretty shocking numbers," says lead author and emergency medicine physician ...

Research breakthrough takes supercomputing out of the lab

2012-05-01
In the age of high-speed computing, the photon is king. However, producing the finely tuned particles of light is a complex and time-consuming process, until now. Thanks to the work by a team of engineers led by Professor Amr Helmy of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, a novel solution has been identified that will make the production of special class of photons faster and easier. Advanced computing technologies – such as ultra-secure communication systems and optical quantum computers – use light to quickly relay information. ...

NC Handcrafted Custom Guitar Played By The Winner Of Japan's 2012 National Finger-picking Competition, Shohei Toyoda

2012-05-01
Shohei Toyoda is a professional guitarist and a guitar instructor, which makes having a high quality instrument extremely important. He worked closely during the custom guitar design process with luthier Jay Lichty to ensure the finished instrument would be the perfect fit for his style of playing. His custom Lichty guitar is a Cuban mahogany OM-style guitar with Lutz spruce top, Mahogany neck, side sound port, Curly maple binding, redwood burl rosette and headplate, LR Baggs Anthem pick-up, and Gotoh 510 tuners. Shohei Toyoda was born in Japan, raised in Ohio and ...

How does the immune system fight off threats to the brain? New research yields fresh insight

How does the immune system fight off threats to the brain? New research yields fresh insight
2012-05-01
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Like a police officer calling for backup while also keeping a strong hold on a suspected criminal, immune cells in the brain take a two-tier approach to fighting off a threat, new research from the University of Michigan Health System finds. For the first time, the scientists managed to capture that reaction in action, showing how certain immune cells locked onto a model of virus-infected brain cells, while also sending signals to neighboring uninfected cells to let them know about the immune attack. The findings may help research on how the brain ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Program takes aim at drinking, unsafe sex, and sexual assault on college campuses

Inability to pay for healthcare reaches record high in U.S.

Science ‘storytelling’ urgently needed amid climate and biodiversity crisis

KAIST Develops Retinal Therapy to Restore Lost Vision​

Adipocyte-hepatocyte signaling mechanism uncovered in endoplasmic reticulum stress response

Mammals were adapting from life in the trees to living on the ground before dinosaur-killing asteroid

Low LDL cholesterol levels linked to reduced risk of dementia

Thickening of the eye’s retina associated with greater risk and severity of postoperative delirium in older patients

Almost one in ten people surveyed report having been harmed by the NHS in the last three years

Enhancing light control with complex frequency excitations

New research finds novel drug target for acute myeloid leukemia, bringing hope for cancer patients

New insight into factors associated with a common disease among dogs and humans

Illuminating single atoms for sustainable propylene production

New study finds Rocky Mountain snow contamination

Study examines lactation in critically ill patients

UVA Engineering Dean Jennifer West earns AIMBE’s 2025 Pierre Galletti Award

Doubling down on metasurfaces

New Cedars-Sinai study shows how specialized diet can improve gut disorders

Making moves and hitting the breaks: Owl journeys surprise researchers in western Montana

PKU Scientists simulate the origin and evolution of the North Atlantic Oscillation

ICRAFT breakthrough: Unlocking A20’s dual role in cancer immunotherapy

How VR technology is changing the game for Alzheimer’s disease

A borrowed bacterial gene allowed some marine diatoms to live on a seaweed diet

Balance between two competing nerve proteins deters symptoms of autism in mice

Use of antifungals in agriculture may increase resistance in an infectious yeast

Awareness grows of cancer risk from alcohol consumption, survey finds

The experts that can outsmart optical illusions

Pregnancy may reduce long COVID risk

Scientists uncover novel immune mechanism in wheat tandem kinase

Three University of Virginia Engineering faculty elected as AAAS Fellows

[Press-News.org] Highly religious people are less motivated by compassion than are non-believers
UC Berkeley study finds atheists, agnostics and less religious people are more driven by compassion to be generous