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In the back of your mind: Subliminal influences of religious concepts on prosocial behavior

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Author Info
Ahmed, Ali M. () (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University)
Salas, Osvaldo () (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University)
Abstract

Does religion enhance prosocial behavior? We investigate the ways in which implicit influences of religious concepts affect generosity and cooperation. In contrast to previous studies, we assess the direct impact of religion as an independent variable on prosocial behavior. We do so by subliminally priming participants with religious concepts in a scrambled sentence task before they play a dictator game and a prisoner’s dilemma game. We found that implicit priming of religious concepts significantly increased prosocial behavior in both games. This result was present among both religious and nonreligious participants. Selfreported measure of religiosity was related neither to generosity nor to cooperation.

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File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/18838
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Göteborg University, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers in Economics with number 331.

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Length: 27 pages
Date of creation: 08 Dec 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0331

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University Box 640, SE 405 30 GÖTEBORG, Sweden
Phone: 031-773 10 00
Web page: http://www.handels.gu.se/econ/
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Related research
Keywords: religion; priming; dictator game; prisoner’s dilemma game;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
C90 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - General
Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion
Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Social Norms and Social Capital; Social Networks Economic Anthropology

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This page was last updated on 2009-12-2.

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