Implicit influences of Christian religious representations on dictator and prisoner's dilemma game decisions

We investigate how implicit influences of Christian religious representations affect prosociality. We examine the direct impact of religion as an independent variable on prosocial behavior. We do so by priming participants with religious words in a scrambled sentence task before they make a dictator game and a prisoner's dilemma game decision. Priming religious words significantly increased prosocial behavior in both games: participants in the treatment group were more generous and cooperative than participants in the control group. The priming effect was present regardless of participants’ self-reported religiosity. Self-reported religiosity was not correlated with generosity or cooperation.

Research highlights▶ An examination of implicit influences of religious representations on prosociality. ▶ Religious primes increased prosociality in the dictator and prisoner's dilemma game. ▶ Priming effect was present regardless of participants’ self-reported religiosity. ▶ Self-reported religiosity was not correlated with generosity or cooperation.