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Did the Devil Make Them Do It? The Effects of Religion in Public Goods and Trust Games

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Author Info
Lisa R. Anderson () (Department of Economics, College of William and Mary)
Jennifer M. Mellor () (Department of Economics, College of William and Mary)
Jeffrey Milyo () (Department of Economics, University of Missouri)

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Abstract

Observational studies frequently support the popular belief that religion is associated with more other-regarding behavior; however, such studies are well known to be susceptible to the confounding effects of unobserved determinants of cooperation and trust. We test whether religious affiliation and participation in religious services are associated with behavior in public goods and trust games. Contrary to popular wisdom, religious affiliation is unrelated to individual behavior. However, we do find some weak evidence that among subjects attending religious services, increased participation is associated with behavior in both public goods and trust games.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Department of Economics, College of William and Mary in its series Working Papers with number 20.

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Length: 32 pages
Date of creation: 03 Aug 2005
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Handle: RePEc:cwm:wpaper:20

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Related research
Keywords: religion; Public goods; experiments; religion; social capital and trust;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
C9 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments
H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  2. Fehr, Ernst & Fischbacher, Urs & von Rosenbladt, Bernhard & Schupp, Jürgen & Wagner, Gert G., 2003. "A Nation-Wide Laboratory: Examining Trust and Trustworthiness by Integrating Behavioral Experiments into Representative Surveys," IZA Discussion Papers 715, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  3. Eckel, Catherine C. & Grossman, Philip J., 2003. "Rebate versus matching: does how we subsidize charitable contributions matter?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(3-4), pages 681-701, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Bradley J. Ruffle & Richard H. Sosis, 2003. "Does It Pay To Pray? Evaluating the Economic Return to Religious Ritual," Experimental 0309002, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Arthur C. Brooks, 2005. "Does Social Capital Make You Generous?," Social Science Quarterly, The Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 86(1), pages 1-15. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Tan, Jonathan H.W., 2006. "Religion and social preferences: An experimental study," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 60-67, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Johansson-Stenman, Olof & Mahmud, Minhaj & Martinsson, Peter, 2005. "Trust and Religion: Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh," Working Papers in Economics 167, Göteborg University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  9. La Porta, Rafael, et al, 1997. "Trust in Large Organizations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 333-38, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Andreoni, James, 1995. "Warm-Glow versus Cold-Prickle: The Effects of Positive and Negative Framing on Cooperation in Experiments," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 110(1), pages 1-21, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Bruno Frey & Stephan Meier, 2005. "Selfish and Indoctrinated Economists?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 165-171, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Lisa Anderson & Jennifer Mellor & Jeffrey Milyo, 2006. "Induced heterogeneity in trust experiments," Experimental Economics, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 223-235, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Robert J. Barro & Rachel McCleary, 2003. "Religion and Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 9682, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Guiso, Luigi & Sapienza, Paola & Zingales, Luigi, 2003. "People's opium? Religion and economic attitudes," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 225-282, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Hessel Oosterbeek & Randolph Sloof & Gijs van de Kuilen, 2004. "Cultural differences in ultimatum game experiments: Evidence from a meta-analysis," Experimental 0401003, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
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  16. Edward L. Glaeser & David I. Laibson & José A. Scheinkman & Christine L. Soutter, 2000. "Measuring Trust," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 115(3), pages 811-846, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Berggren, Niclas & Bjørnskov, Christian, 2009. "Does Religiosity Promote or Discourage Social Trust? Evidence from Cross-Country and Cross-State Comparisons," Ratio Working Papers 142, The Ratio Institute. [Downloadable!]
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-16.

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