Religious Attendance Relates to Generosity Worldwide:
Gallup data reveal that adherents of all the major world religions who attended religious services (attenders) in the past week have higher rates of generosity than do their coreligionists who did not attend services (non-attenders). Even for individuals who do not affiliate with any religious tradition, those who said they attended religious services in the past week exhibited more generous behaviors.
These findings are based on Gallup surveys conducted from 2005-2009 in 145 countries, which asked individuals about whether they in the past month donated money to a charity, volunteered time to an organization, and helped a stranger. It has long been known that in the United States, religious attendance is associated with higher rates of volunteering and monetary donations, but the global data suggest the relationship exists in almost all countries.
Interestingly:
The effects of religious attendance on generous behavior are much stronger than whether religion is important to an individual. Of those who reported that religion was important part of their daily life, 30% said they donated money in the last month, as compared with 29% of those for whom religion was not important. Similar findings exist for helping strangers and volunteering time. In all three cases the differences associated with religion being important to the respondent are smaller than those between religious attenders and non-attenders.
Religion is many things. One of those things is an institutional framework which allows for collective action and communal participation by individuals. Religious institutions seem particularly robust, far more robust than the beliefs which are associated with religious institutions at any given time.
- Log in to post comments
Of these, how many donated anything to an organisation other than their own church?
I remember that health, happiness and IQ were also positively associated with attending services but not with religious importance or belief. Giving and happiness are positively associated and so are health and IQ. It could be that religious service attendance is merely a sign of a deeper trait which is linked to generosity rather than being directly linked itself. I don't think religion itself is positively connected to generosity. I bet if you control for belief and the personal importance of religion service attendance will be even more strongly related to generosity i.e. its the non-religious element that counts.
I bet if you control for belief and the personal importance of religion service attendance will be even more strongly related to generosity i.e. its the non-religious element that counts.
Yes, but . . .
What exactly is it though about institutions with at least an ostensibly supernatural basis for being that makes them capable of inspiring such generosity, while comparable secular institutions can't seem to get off the ground.
While I'd like to think religion improves generosity, one should note that many religions tithe to help with religious upkeep (as well as charity aids). Often there are social pressures to donate. (Think the public ceremony of the collection plate in many forms of Protestantism or tithing sermons in Mormonism)
The question then becomes how should those be judged? As charity or not? Utah, for instance, because of the extensive tithing, is judged as charitable. But if you eliminate tithing I think the place goes down quite a bit. I'm not saying it should be discounted, but clearly it's a more difficult and complex issue than someone who is giving purely to say United Way or the Red Cross.
Why are generous people attracted to religion or at to least houses of religion?
Is it a social outlet?
Maybe they give because they are asked for money in a social context.
Maybe secular people would give in a similar way if they regularly attended some social group that asked for money.
Many people will help only if asked, but won't volunteer.
Secular institutions get contributions, but who is contributing? pew sitters? atheists?
I know some religious people who feel obligated to give 10% of their income out of religious motivation, but only a portion goes to the church, the rest goes to other causes.
There is likely a range of generosity and religiosity.
Anyway it isn't purely generosity. People give money to the church to get a place to take their kids to indoctrinate them to behave better and have a ideologically homogenous community. It gives adults time to reflect and meditate on ideas/philosophy beyond the day to day details of life. So the contributions support the church as a community center that they use fairly regularly as well as doing some charitable work.
Dude, I am surprised you would make such a basic error: This study only shows that people who *claim* to be regular religious attenders also *claim* to be more generous.
Do taxes count?