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LINKÖPING, Sweden — Religious people aren’t more generous than atheists – unless they know the recipient’s religious beliefs. This surprising finding emerged from one of the most comprehensive studies to date examining how religion influences charitable giving across cultures. The research reveals that when people know nothing about potential recipients except basic information like their hobbies or favorite movies, religious believers give the same amount of money as non-believers. But something fascinating happens when religious affiliations are revealed: Everyone, whether Christian, Muslim, or atheist, becomes notably more generous to members of their own group.
Working together at Sweden’s Linköping University, atheist researcher Nathalie Hallin and Christian researcher Hajdi Moche set out to investigate whether religious belief makes a person more generous – a question that previous research has disagreed on. Their insightful study, spanning three continents and over 1,700 participants, offers new insights into how religious identity shapes charitable giving.
The research, published in Judgment and Decision Making, challenges long-held assumptions about religious generosity while highlighting how powerfully religious identity influences charitable behavior. The findings suggest that generosity isn’t simply a matter of religious versus non-religious attitudes – it’s deeply intertwined with our sense of group identity and belonging.
The researchers designed a clever experiment using what economists call a “Dictator Game.” In this game, participants receive a sum of money (in this case, the equivalent of about $10) and must decide how to split it between themselves and other players. The twist? They can’t keep all the money for themselves but must give at least some portion to others.
What makes this study particularly innovative is that participants played multiple rounds, each time deciding how to divide their money between themselves and three other players. Sometimes, they knew the other players’ religious affiliations (Christian, Muslim, or atheist), while in other rounds, they only knew random facts about them, like their favorite vacation spots, movie genres, or hobbies.
The results paint a nuanced picture of religious generosity. The first study, conducted in Sweden with 398 participants, found that when people didn’t know the religious affiliations of other players, religious people weren’t any more generous than atheists or agnostics. However, when religious information was revealed, religious participants became significantly more generous overall compared to non-religious participants.
But here’s where it gets really interesting: Everyone — whether Christian, Muslim, or atheist — showed stronger generosity toward members of their own group.
“I was actually surprised because the only thing that unites atheists is that you don’t believe in a god,” says Hallin in a statement, noting the unexpected finding that even atheists favored their own group.
The researchers expanded their investigation to include over 700 participants in the United States and approximately 600 people in Egypt and Lebanon. The pattern held steady across all three studies: religion was consistently the factor that had the greatest impact on generosity, with participants favoring those who shared their faith.
The Muslim participants showed particularly intriguing patterns. In the U.S., Muslims demonstrated stronger ingroup giving compared to Christians and atheists. While similar trends appeared in Sweden, the smaller number of Muslim participants made it impossible to draw definitive conclusions. In Egypt and Lebanon, there was no difference in how much Christians and Muslims gave to their own groups, raising questions about how cultural context might influence these behaviors.
The implications of this research extend beyond academic interest. As our world becomes increasingly interconnected and religiously diverse, understanding how religious identity influences charitable giving could help organizations better appeal to donors and promote more inclusive giving practices.
“You can be generous in different ways. You can be generous with time, with love or with care. So whether there is anything in religion that says you should be generous with money in particular is something to think about anyway,” Moche observes.
The researchers are careful not to judge whether favoring one’s own group is good or bad, noting that while it might be considered unfair, it could also be viewed as preferable to not being generous at all. This measured approach helps us understand these behaviors without condemning them.
Perhaps most importantly, the study reminds us that generosity isn’t simply a matter of religious versus non-religious attitudes — it’s deeply intertwined with our sense of group identity and belonging. In the end, no matter our faith, we all seem to share a very human tendency to take special care of “our own.”
Paper Summary
Methodology
The researchers used a modified version of the Dictator Game, where participants received 100 Swedish Kronor (approximately $10) in each round and had to decide how to divide it between themselves and three other players. They couldn’t keep all the money but had to give at least some to others. Participants played six rounds, with different information revealed about the other players in each round. One crucial round revealed religious affiliations, while others showed information about hobbies, vacation preferences, and other characteristics. This clever design allowed researchers to compare how people behaved when religious information was and wasn’t available.
Key Results
The key findings showed that religious people were more generous than atheists only when they knew the religious affiliations of recipients. Without this information, there was no significant difference in generosity between religious and non-religious participants. All groups (Christians, Muslims, and atheists) showed parochial generosity, giving more to their own group members. Muslim participants in the U.S. and Sweden showed particularly strong ingroup favoritism, giving about 12-20 SEK more to fellow Muslims compared to how much other groups gave to their own members.
Study Limitations
The study faced several challenges, including difficulty recruiting Muslim participants in Sweden and atheist participants in Egypt and Lebanon. The money and other players were hypothetical, though previous research suggests people behave similarly with real money. Additionally, participants in studies 2 and 3 were paid for participation, while study 1 participants weren’t, which could have affected the sample composition. The artificial nature of the experiment, without real-world context, might limit its ecological validity.
Discussion & Takeaways
The research suggests that religious generosity is more situational than previously thought, emerging primarily when religious identity is salient. The strong evidence of parochial generosity across all groups, including atheists, indicates this behavior might be more about group identity than religious beliefs per se. The stronger ingroup giving among Muslims, even in Muslim-majority countries, raises interesting questions about cultural and religious factors influencing generosity patterns.
Funding & Disclosures
The research was supported by the Swedish Research Council and Linköping University. The authors declared no competing interests, and first authorship was decided by a coin flip between Nathalie Hallin and Hajdi Moche, who contributed equally to the work.
