Love thy neighbor? The effects of religious in/out-group identity on social behavior

In the article, keeping with the hypothesis that people use religious identity to regulate their norm directed behavior appropriately toward in/out-group members, two natural experiments took place in the center of Gdansk city. The samples consisted of bystanders: passengers traveling by tram and customers shopping in a supermarket, where religious identity of the target was manipulated. In Study 1, a female student simulates a broken leg and walks with crutches. She tries to get a seat on the tram in three manipulation conditions, wearing: a religious habit as a Christian nun (in-group), a hijab as a Muslim (out-group), and a black shirt with the word “God” crossed out as an atheist. In Study 2, a male student simulates queue-jumping in a supermarket, wearing: a religious habit as a Christian priest, a Jewish skullcap as a Jew, and a white shirt as a secular men. The results confirmed the stated hypothesis, that helping and submissive behaviors was directed only to the in-group religious members, but not toward religious outsiders. The given findings are discussed in the context of social identity theory and have led to the conclusion that, in practice, love thy neighbor golden rule applies only to the religious in-group.