Did the Devil Make Them Do It? The Effects of Religion in Public Goods and Trust Games

Lisa R. Anderson, Jennifer M. Mellor () and Jeffrey Milyo

No 20, Working Papers from Department of Economics, College of William and Mary

Abstract: Observational studies frequently support the popular belief that religion is associated with more other-regarding behavior; however, such studies are well known to be susceptible to the confounding effects of unobserved determinants of cooperation and trust. We test whether religious affiliation and participation in religious services are associated with behavior in public goods and trust games. Contrary to popular wisdom, religious affiliation is unrelated to individual behavior. However, we do find some weak evidence that among subjects attending religious services, increased participation is associated with behavior in both public goods and trust games.

Keywords: religion; Public goods; experiments; religion; social capital and trust (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C9 H4 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-soc
Date: 2005-08-03
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