Spirituality

Does religion make people more moral ?

By T.K. Randall
September 13, 2014

Image: Bible
Credit: John Snyder / CC BY-SA 3.0 (adapted) Researchers from Saint Peter's University in New Jersey and the University of Illinois in Chicago asked 1,252 adults from the United and States and Canada a number of questions about their experiences both committing and witnessing good and bad deeds.

While those from different religious and political backgrounds might seem to be at loggerheads on a number of moral issues, the study found that people tend to commit the same number of good deeds regardless of their personal beliefs.There were however some differences among the participants - deeply religious people tended to experience a more intense feeling of guilt or embarrassment upon committing an immoral act and a deeper sense of pride or satisfaction when committing a moral one.

On the political side, liberals and conservatives appeared to have similar morals but tended to think and talk about moral concepts in different ways.

"As far as I know, this is the first study that's used this kind of lived-experience approach to track morality as it's happening," said psychologist Dan Wisneski.

Source: Live Science

Tags: Religion, Politics, Morality