IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cns/cnscwp/202504.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Under Big Gods' Eyes. The Impact of Religious Beliefs on Altruistic Punishment During COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • F. Atzori
  • G. Ballicu
  • V. Pelligra

Abstract

We investigate whether and how the "Big Gods hypothesis" influences individuals' punitive behaviors in response to non-compliance with COVID-19 norms. Prior studies have demonstrated that religious priming enhances prosocial behavior, with religious primes encouraging individuals to punish unfair behavior for maintaining their reputation with a supernatural agent. Our study uses original survey data from the USA to examine how the intensity of religious life correlates with increased punishment of norm violators. Our findings show that individuals who spend more time on religious practices, particularly when compared to atheists or agnostics, believe it is right to punish those who break COVID-related rules and are more likely to punish the transgressors. Additionally, we observe that believers in faiths like Islam and Catholicism exhibit stronger tendencies toward punitive actions than non-believers, though these effects weaken when moderated by other factors.

Suggested Citation

  • F. Atzori & G. Ballicu & V. Pelligra, 2025. "Under Big Gods' Eyes. The Impact of Religious Beliefs on Altruistic Punishment During COVID-19 Pandemic," Working Paper CRENoS 202504, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    • Handle: RePEc:cns:cnscwp:202504
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://crenos.unica.it/crenos/node/8995
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://crenos.unica.it/crenos/sites/default/files/wp-25-04.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Malhotra, Deepak, 2010. "(When) are religious people nicer? Religious salience and the “Sunday Effect” on pro-social behavior," Judgment and Decision Making, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(2), pages 138-143, April.
    2. Caliendo, Marco & Fossen, Frank & Kritikos, Alexander, 2012. "Trust, positive reciprocity, and negative reciprocity: Do these traits impact entrepreneurial dynamics?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 394-409.
    3. Laurence R. Iannaccone, 1998. "Introduction to the Economics of Religion," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(3), pages 1465-1495, September.
    4. Frank, Robert H, 1985. "The Demand for Unobservable and Other Nonpositional Goods," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 101-116, March.
    5. Blázquez, Maite & Sánchez-Mangas, Rocío, 2023. "General and COVID19-specific emotional stress: Religious practice as a potential coping strategy," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    6. Benjamin Edelman, 2009. "Markets: Red Light States: Who Buys Online Adult Entertainment?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 209-220, Winter.
    7. repec:cup:judgdm:v:5:y:2010:i:2:p:138-143 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Deepak Malhotra, 2010. "(When) are religious people nicer? Religious salience and the ``Sunday effect'' on pro-social behavior," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 5(2), pages 138-143, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Berggren, Niclas & Ljunge, Martin, 2017. "Does Religion Make You Sick? Evidence of a Negative Relationship between Religious Background and Health," Working Paper Series 1173, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    2. Esa Mangeloja, 2004. "Interrelationship of economic growth and regional religious properties," ERSA conference papers ersa04p94, European Regional Science Association.
    3. Sergio Da Silva & Raul Matsushita & Vanessa Valcanover & Jessica Campara & Newton Da Costa, 2022. "Losses make choices nonpositional," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(11), pages 1-11, November.
    4. Robert MacCulloch & Silvia Pezzini, 2010. "The Roles of Freedom, Growth, and Religion in the Taste for Revolution," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(2), pages 329-358, May.
    5. Sascha O. Becker & Ludger Woessmann, 2018. "Social Cohesion, Religious Beliefs, and the Effect of Protestantism on Suicide," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(3), pages 377-391, July.
    6. Marco Caliendo & Frank M. Fossen & Alexander Kritikos & Miriam Wetter, 2015. "The Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship: Not just a Matter of Personality," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 61(1), pages 202-238.
    7. Gilat Levy & Ronnie Razin, 2009. "Religious Organizations," STICERD - Theoretical Economics Paper Series 544, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    8. Leon Zolotoy & Don O’Sullivan & Keke Song, 2021. "The Role of Ethical Standards in the Relationship Between Religious Social Norms and M&A Announcement Returns," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(4), pages 721-742, May.
    9. Niklas Potrafke, 2016. "Policies against human trafficking: the role of religion and political institutions," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 353-386, November.
    10. Pannicke, Julia, 2015. "Abstimmungsverhalten im Bundesvision Song Contest: Regionale Nähe versus Qualität der Musik," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 95, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    11. Martin Paldam & Erich Gundlach, 2013. "The religious transition. A long-run perspective," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 105-123, July.
    12. Robert J. Barro & Rachel M. McCleary, 2016. "Saints Marching In, 1590–2012," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 83(331), pages 385-415, July.
    13. Daniela Andreini & Diego Rinallo & Giuseppe Pedeliento & Mara Bergamaschi, 2017. "Brands and Religion in the Secularized Marketplace and Workplace: Insights from the Case of an Italian Hospital Renamed After a Roman Catholic Pope," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 141(3), pages 529-550, March.
    14. Goerke, Laszlo, 2013. "Relative consumption and tax evasion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 52-65.
    15. Alpizar, Francisco & Carlsson, Fredrik & Johansson-Stenman, Olof, 2005. "How much do we care about absolute versus relative income and consumption?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 405-421, March.
    16. Resul Cesur & Naci H. Mocan, 2013. "Does Secular Education Impact Religiosity, Electoral Participation and the Propensity to Vote for Islamic Parties? Evidence from an Education Reform in a Muslim Country," NBER Working Papers 19769, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Wan, Qilong & Qian, Jine & Baghirli, Araz & Aghayev, Aligul, 2022. "Green finance and carbon reduction: Implications for green recovery," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 901-913.
    18. Muhammad Faress Bhuiyan, 2018. "Life Satisfaction and Economic Position Relative to Neighbors: Perceptions Versus Reality," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(7), pages 1935-1964, October.
    19. Till Treeck, 2014. "Did Inequality Cause The U.S. Financial Crisis?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 421-448, July.
    20. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/vbu6kd1s68o6r34k5bcm3iopv is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Thomas Aronsson & Olof Johansson-Stenman, 2014. "When Samuelson Met Veblen Abroad: National and Global Public Good Provision when Social Comparisons Matter," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(322), pages 224-243, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cns:cnscwp:202504. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CRENoS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/crenoit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.