God-fearing reputations are trusted even by outsiders and nonbelievers

Evidence

When the choice is between two religious strangers with unknown credibility, the one who truly fears God is trusted more. Supporting this, the economist Robert Frank observes that many wealthy nonreligious New Yorkers place their ads for nannies in Salt Lake City newspapers, apparently believing that Mormons are particularly trustworthy nannies. Similarly, Sikhs are viewed by non-Sikhs as trustworthy economic partners. Although sincere belief in the same supernatural monitor is the best elicitor of trust, there is a sliding scale of religious trust that could extend to religious outgroups. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 224

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• SHARE: The Robert Frank nanny-in-Salt-Lake-City anecdote is a delicious, specific fact a friend working in economics or religion could enjoy.

Related

• Religious commitment to rival gods still signals trustworthiness to believers and even nonbelievers (similarity 0.89)
• Belief in any moralizing deity signals trustworthiness to strangers (similarity 0.80)
• Global trust in religion far exceeds trust in government (similarity 0.79)
• Any genuine religious belief signals trustworthiness, not just one’s own church. (similarity 0.79)
• Perceived accountability to supernatural monitors extends trust beyond one’s own religious community (similarity 0.79)
• Supernatural monitoring by any religion can extend trust beyond one’s own community (similarity 0.79)
• Nonbelievers show mild trust toward believers while believers trust only their own (similarity 0.79)
• Fear of god functioned historically as the sole trust mechanism among strangers (similarity 0.79)
• Believers are broadly trusted more than disbelievers in religious-majority societies (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Perceived accountability to supernatural monitors extends trust beyond one’s own religious community #expands (0.90) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 259
• Prosocial religious cohesion inherently requires excluding nonbelievers from trust #contradicts (0.85) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 525