Religious cues elicit prosociality only toward perceived co-religionists

Evidence

In one early study, a team of economists led by John Orbell examined cooperative behavior in the Prisoner’s Dilemma Game toward strangers in two American cities with vastly different levels of religious diversity. They found that individuals in a religiously homogenous Mormon society (Logan, Utah), where one could be confident that the stranger shared one’s religious beliefs, were far more willing to engage in cooperative behavior toward each other than those in a religiously heterogenous society (Eugene, Oregon). Furthermore, while greater levels of religious attendance was associated with more cooperative behavior in the homogenous Logan sample, no such correlation was observed in Eugene. This lends some support to the idea that religious markers elicit prosociality, and shows the bounded nature of religious trust. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 215

Categorization

• XREF: Directly extends the reader’s partner-choice frame (Baumard et al.): religious homophily is a partner-selection signal, since confidence the stranger shares beliefs licenses cooperation. — connects to: Religiously motivated prosociality targets in-groups and racism targets outgroups — Alexandra Snell, Miron Zuckerman, and Bonnie M. Le, Does Religious Priming Induce Greater…, 15