The DOI matches its Crossref record; 87 of the 90 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Prosocial Behavior and Religion: New Evidence Based on Projective Measures and Peer Ratings
Abstract
An important discrepancy seems to exist between self-reports and laboratory studies regarding prosociality among religious people. Some have even suggested that this involves moral hypocrisy on the part of religious people. However, the assumption of the four studies reported here is that the impact of religiousness on prosociality is limited but exists, and does not reflect self-delusion. In Study 1 (N= 106), religious young adults tended not to use indirect aggression in dealing with hypothetical daily hassles. In Study 2 (N= 105), female students' religiosity was associated with willingness to help close targets in hypothetical situations but the effect was not extended to unknown targets. In Studies 3 (N= 315, 105 triads) and 4 (N= 274, 109 targets), religious targets not only reported high altruistic behavior and empathy, but were also perceived as such by peers (friends, siblings, or colleagues) in three out of four cases. Other results from the studies suggested that the prosociality of religious people is not an artifact of gender, social desirability bias, security in attachment, empathy, or honesty.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Of the nine best studies, four reported significant positive relationships (44%) [101–104] and three report significant negative relationships (33%) [105–107], whereas the two remaining studies reported complex or mixed results (significant positive and negative associations, depending on R/S characteristic).”
From Religion, Spirituality, and Health: The Research and Clinical Implications (2012) · cites this paper as [107]
In the citing paper
“Notably, religiosity has been linked to both ingroup favoritism [20–22] and impression management [23].”
From The amoral atheist? A cross-national examination of cultural, motivational, and cognitive antecedents of disbelief, and their implications for morality (2021) · cites this paper as [22]
Citations
Cites
Erikson, E. H. (2026) · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · doi:10.5281/zenodo.18614668 · Cited by 13,081
Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach.
Davis, M. H. (1983) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.44.1.113 · Cited by 10,272
Handbook of Positive Psychology
(2001) · doi:10.1093/oso/9780195135336.001.0001 · Cited by 9,155
Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process.
Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.52.3.511 · Cited by 6,247
Handbook of attachment: theory, research, and clinical applications
(1999) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.37-1841 · Cited by 5,386
The varieties of religious experience: A study in human nature.
James, W. (1902) · doi:10.1037/10004-000 · Cited by 5,204
Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life
Steidlmeier, P., Bellah, R. Ν., Madsen, R. P., Swindler, A., Sullivan, W. M., & Tipton, S. M. (1986) · Review of Religious Research · doi:10.2307/3511439 · Cited by 5,061
Measurement and Control of Response Bias
Paulhus, D. L. (1991) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-590241-0.50006-x · Cited by 3,867
Gender differences in personality traits across cultures: Robust and surprising findings.
Costa, P. T., Terracciano, A., & McCrae, R. R. (2001) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.81.2.322 · Cited by 2,986
Lerner, M. J. (1980) · doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-0448-5 · Cited by 2,656
Research works printed but not linked: 17
- 10.1037//0022-3514.45.6.1380 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1037//0022-3514.67.5.773 · DOI
- 10.1037//0022-3514.81.2.322 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1037//0022-3514.44.1.113 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1037//0003-066X.56.6-7.497 · DOI
- Freud S., 1913, Totem and taboo
- Freud S., 1927, The future of an illusion
- 10.1037//0022-3514.52.3.511 · DOI · Paper page
- Jones H. B., 1997, Human Relations, 50, 757
- 10.1037//0012-1649.38.4.591 · DOI
- 10.1037//0893-3200.13.3.321 · DOI
- 10.1037//0022-3514.81.6.1205 · DOI
- 10.1037//0021-9010.81.5.557 · DOI
- Rosenzweig S., 1948, The Rosenzweig picture frustration study: Revised form for adults
- Saroglou V., Handbook of psychology of religion
- Tournois J., 2000, European Review of Applied Psychology, 50, 219
- Vazire S., 2004, Immaculate perceptions? Why and how to go beyond self-reports in personality assessment
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Religion, Spirituality, and Health: The Research and Clinical Implications
Koenig, H. G. (2012) · ISRN Psychiatry · doi:10.5402/2012/278730 · Cited by 2,423
“Of those, 33 (70%) reported significant associations, whereas five (11%) found less altruism among the more R/S; of the 20 best studies, 15 (75%) reported positive relationships [108–113]”
BackgroundAwe, the small self, and prosocial behavior
Piff, P. K., Dietze, P., Feinberg, M., Stancato, D. M., & Keltner, D. (2015) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/pspi0000018 · Cited by 1,214
Religion, self-regulation, and self-control: Associations, explanations, and implications.
McCullough, M. E., & Willoughby, B. L. B. (2009) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0014213 · Cited by 1,275
Handbook of Religion and Health
Koenig, H. G., VanderWeele, T. J., & Peteet, J. R. (2023) · doi:10.1093/oso/9780190088859.001.0001 · Cited by 1,160
The HEXACO Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness, and Emotionality Factors
Ashton, M., Lee, K., & de Vries, R. D. (2014) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1177/1088868314523838 · Cited by 869
Metadata
- Authors
- SAROGLOU, V., PICHON, I., TROMPETTE, L., VERSCHUEREN, M., & DERNELLE, R.
- Affiliations
- UCLouvain (BE)
- KU Leuven (BE)
- Corresponding author
- SAROGLOU, VASSILIS
- PICHON, ISABELLE
- TROMPETTE, LAURENCE
- VERSCHUEREN, MARIJKE
- DERNELLE, REBECCA
- ORCID
- SAROGLOU, VASSILIS
- Venue
- Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2005-09
- Volume
- 44
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 323-348
- ISSN
- 0021-8294 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-5906
- OpenAlex
- W2094001799
- Cited by
- 449
- References
- 90
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 58 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 27 · 2014: 31 · 2013: 31 · 2012: 19
- FWCI
- 5.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Digital Access to Libraries (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering
- Keywords
- prosocial behavior, religiosity, moral hypocrisy, altruism, empathy, indirect aggression, helping behavior, peer perception, social desirability bias, attachment security, honesty, gender differences
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review