Study: Religious Kids Are Jerks

[decocker 7,198]

Over 1,100 children, aged 5 to 12, from the United States, China, Canada, Jordan, Turkey, and South Africa were chosen to participate in the study. Most of the children came from Christian, Muslim, or non-religious households. To test whether children raised on religion would behave more morally than non-religious children, they were asked to play what’s called a “dictator game.” In this game, children were shown 30 stickers and told that they could pick their favorite 10 to keep for themselves. The children were then each told that the experimenter didn’t have enough time to play this game with everyone, so some of the children at their school wouldn’t get any stickers. What the results showed was that children from Christian and Muslim households were both significantly less generous than children from non-religious households when it came to sharing their stickers with anonymous peers.

The findings not only show that religious kids aren’t more altruistic than non-religious kids; it suggests that not being religious may actually increase moral behavior. To most this would seem counterintuitive. The authors of the study have an explanation that involves an interesting phenomenon called moral licensing. The term refers to a sort of mental glitch—whereby doing something that enhances one’s positive self-image makes them less worried about the consequences of immoral behavior. For instance, research has shown that men who report being very opposed to sexism later go on to hire men for what would traditionally be considered a man’s job. They do this because they feel that since they are not sexist—at least, in their own minds—a decision to choose a male over a female can’t be immoral.

Similarly, someone that sees him or herself as being a moral person for devoutly practicing a religion might be less concerned about their actual behavior. In light of this, it is not so surprising that children who identified as religious did not feel as compelled to share stickers, since they believed themselves to be a good person independent of their behavior. On the other hand, an atheist child might be more concerned about the morality of their acts, since it is their behavior that tells them they are a good person, and not the following of rituals or prayer.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/06/study-religious-kids-are-jerks.html

[Teddy B 17,252]

Religion is the devil!

[Expat1 971]

That whole "congress shall make no law" thing originated from people who were afraid of and had been victims of rule by religious jerks.

No further study needed.

[X Factor 1,112]

I wonder if they were giving candy if the non-religious kids would be as selfish. Who cares about stickers

[Expat1 971]

I wonder if they were giving candy if the non-religious kids would be as selfish. Who cares about stickers

[X Factor 1,112]

One of my favorite candy. Time to be selfish

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

That was a awesome scientific study. I bet a no bell prize is in the works

[GandD 5,966]

I doubt a no bell prize is in anyone's future.

[X Factor 1,112]

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

I doubt a no bell prize is in anyone's future.

Actually no bell was intentional this time. Not that I am not the VJ king of grammar bombs