Morality is often associated with religion. Our beliefs are often shaped with our faith or the lack of one. However a new research has some surprising revelations. It was actually found out that children from religious households are less generous than kids from a non-religious background.
As reported in Inquisitr, a recent study published in Current Biology reveals that kids who are brought up in a Christian or Muslim households tend to have a lack of altruism than non-religious children. More so, non-religious children and adults seem to show altruism at a higher level.
According to Fortune Magazine, the project was led by Professor Jean Decety, a neuroscientist from the University of Chicago whose aim was not to compare moral behaviour. It is a general belief that religion promotes morality so it should follow that kids from religious households should have stronger altruistic tendencies.
"I was more interested in whether I would find differences in empathy or sharing depending on the culture," he says.
Researchers examined over 1,170 kids aging 5-12 from various religious backgrounds living in different parts of the world (USA, Canada, China, Jordan, Turkey and South Africa). The results may come as a shock to religious families who pride themselves in being moral. There was a noticeable generosity gap between religious and non-religious children and adults. More so, the more religious children's household is, the more judgemental children become. Alarmingly, children from the same group were also found to have stronger feelings of vengeance when done wrong by others.
The researchers were able to determine levels of altruism using the "dictator game". Altruism is an act that benefits a recipient at a cost to the donor. The game involves giving each child 30 stickers and was told to choose how many to share with an anonymous child from the same school and similar ethnic group. The results were used to determine the "generosity score".
The results show that secular children shared most stickers. Muslim kids appear to be less generous than the Christian kids however difference is not statistically significant. The three groups became less altruistic with age. Notably, religious kids had lower generosity level. Study suggests that longer exposure leads to less altruism. One cited reason for this is the psychological phenomenon known as "moral licensing" where a person justifies immoral or bad actions with her good ones.
There are a lot of studies confirming the recent studies' findings. However, not everyone has been accepting with the results. So do you believe that non-religious kids are actually more generous than the religious ones? Share us your thoughts by leaving your comments below.
