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Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality If we violate norm we accept: shame, guilt, bad conscience selfishness, honesty, chastity, greed norms may also apply to dispositions, e.g.: social norms – religious norms All religions provide moral guidelines: MORALITY 1 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality main purpose: maintain group harmony keeping prosocial and antisocial tendencies in balance (antisocial, e.g.: self-assertiveness, status seeking) SOCIAL NORMS: not killing, not stealing, helping the poor, etc. similar in different religions, for example, ancient Egypt (Book of the dead), Bible, Buddhism, Nuers (South-Sudan) 2 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality often: religious specialists (officers) include norms that maintain their own status RELIGIOUS NORMS: Which god(s) to worship, which prayers & when, rituals, religious services, virginity of priests, killing of people of different faith or heretics 3 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality instructions for deceased what to answer to the gods in the procedure of judgment of the dead mortuary spells - Example: Book of the Dead (from 1600 BC on, some spells ca 2600 BC) 4 Psychology of Religous Beliefs (British Museum) Morality Papyrus (1600 – 1100 BC) 5 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality I have not added weights to the scales to cheat buyers. 6 I have not scorned (blasphemed) any god. I have not defrauded the poor of their property. I have not killed. I have not given order to kill. I have not inflicted pain on anyone. I have not stolen the drink left for the gods in the temples. examples of mortuary spells: Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality • Social intuist theory of moral judgment • Biological foundations of morality - prosocial and antisocial behavior - reciprocity - status seeking - sexuality - group distinctiveness • Moral attitudes and religiosity • Benefits of religion for morality • Religious morality and general moral norms PREVIEW 7 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality Stealing / tell a lie in order to save a life actually: You shall not kill, except … (self defense, just war, execution, …) You shall not kill • At least some of the social norms are not totally general, e.g.: • Many social norms identical to religious social norms, e.g., prohibition of killing, stealing, defrauding Religious morality and general social norms 8 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality 9 • Religions may be indifferent to specific social norms (do not dictate or forbid), e.g., to death penalty, slavery (also in New testament) • Some social norms are flexible over time e.g. regulation of sexual behavior (pre-, extramarital sex) respecting the king • Not all religious norms are social norms (in all countries): prohibition of sex before marriage, religious duties like prayers, etc. Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality • Many moral principles of many modern states are not religious norms, or have even to be enforced against religions e.g., equal rights for men & women human rights prohibition of slavery prohibition of torture democracy … 10 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality Hinduismus: disagreement whether Shiva or Vishnu is the higher Lord. According to a holy text, Shiva’s heaven is promised to a person who kills someone who blasphemes Shiva, or tears out his tongue. (Klostermaier, 1994) Execution of heretics in Christianity Examples • Religious norms may prescribe behavior that is seen as immoral in other norm systems 11 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality Islam (Sharia - body of Islamic religious law) Stoning to death as penalty for married men and women who commit adultery. Severe penalties for giving up faith or blasphemy (also in old testament) recent examples: Bible (old testament: Deuteronomy, Leviticus) death penalty for : cursing your parents, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, etc A man was gathering sticks for fire on a Sabbath Moses asked god what to do with that man God ordered to stone him with stones. 12 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality Christian-based Ku Klux Klan: hatred to blacks, jews, catholics (Dawkins, 2006) 2006: A. Rahman sentenced to death for converting to Christianity (avoided death because of pleading insanity and because of international pressure) 2001: Dr. Shaik (medical Dr, lecturer) sentenced to death for blasphemy (said to students that Prophet Mohammed was not a Muslim befor he founded religion at age of 40) 13 Morality Religion is useful to enforce moralic principles: Punishment (by gods) if moral rules are disobeyed Punishment and reward usually in afterlife but violations may already be punished here • Psychology of Religous Beliefs Religion provides reasons for moral principles This norm is prescribed by god(s). (Therefore, it is valid and you have to obey it.) Especially important, if norms are inherited (see: Social intuist theory of moral judgment) • Benefits of religion for morality (independent from contents of norms) 14 Morality 15 Æ People who believe they remain anonymous are less altruistic, more aggressive, more punitive than those who believe their identities will be known (Diener et al. 1976; Ellison et al., 1995; war situations: Watson,1973, Northern Ireland: Silke, 2003) Helps to control adherence to norms „gods see everything and can look into your heart“ provides control even if there is no other human being around Psychology of Religous Beliefs • Psychology of Religous Beliefs e.g., Broad (1925) Morality religion should be promoted (even if it is considered as wrong) in order to keep up morality Some philosophers: 16 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality - women going topless on beaches - heavy metal and rap music - suicide - homosexuality - contraception - pornography - divorce - abortion in USA, people who are more religious show more opposition to, for example: MORAL ATTITUDES & RELIGIOSITY (see Spilka et al., 20033) 17 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality - censorship of sex and violence in mass media - traditional sex roles - vengeance - capital punishment - marriage Religious people are more likely to support, for example, 18 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality - 70% of a sample of young Seventh-Day Adventists are pro their church’s prohibition of premarital sex, 54% engaged in premarital sex (Ali & Naidoo, 1999) - people personally opposing abortion on moral or religious grounds may favor legal abortion (Scott, 1989) Problem: Not necessarily attitudes = behavior 19 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality some few behavioral measures, e.g. Perrin (2000) mainly questionnaires for honesty problem of operationalization little or no correlation Religiosity and HONESTY (students) Some specific topics 20 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality problem: drug use usually measured with self-reports also with newer religious movements vast majority of studies: weak negative correlation religiosity – drug use/abuse DRUGS 21 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality Sexual “sins” as cause for shame, guilt, fear Even children of unmarried mothers punished Up to present, millions of people punished (Shea, 1992) 22 Christianity, Islam and other religions: restrictions on sexual behavior premarital sex, adultery, homosexuality, masturbation, … SEXUAL BEHAVIOR Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality 23 concentration on pre-marital sex of younger people few studies involving extramarital sex, homosexuality etc. vast majority of studies: weak negative correlation religiosity – nonmarital sex (self-reports mainly) Nonmarital sex 18 36 25 36 40 43 49 55 40 Jewish Catholic Episcopalian Presbyterian Lutherian Methodist Baptist Other Protestant Total sample 88 93 90 91 90 89 85 87 75 66 Extramarital sexuality Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality 79 86 89 84 81 76 66 77 43 49 Homosexuality Note. Adapted from Cochran and Beeghley (1991), pp. 54-55). After Spilka et al (2003) 10 Premarital Sexuality Nonaffiliated Religious group Attitudes toward Nonmarital Sexuality: Percentage Saying Specific Behaviors Are „Almost Always Wrong“ or „Always Wrong“ among Different Religious Groups Attitude toward: 24 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality “real/severe” crimes not investigated Problem: self-reports, how to operationalize otherwise? problem: usually additional factors for criminal behavior – these not taken into account weak negative correlation mainly for victimless activities (e.g., drug abuse, premarital consensual sex), not for other types CRIMINAL / DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR 25 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality 26 quest (flexible, questioning approach to religion) end (intrinsic) means (conceptually similar to extrinsic orientation) scales with three main dimensions: also behavioral measures Batson (number of studies from about 1970 on) HELPING BEHAVIOR Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality • quest-scale best predictor for helping behavior • intrinsic religiosity relates mainly to appearance of being helpful general result: 27 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality theme 2: jobs that students might pursue theme 1: parable of the good Samaritan - then (one at a time) 40 of these students came to a follow-up experimental session Task: to prepare a short talk based on one of two themes (theme = independent variable) - questionnaire that measured religious orientation (among other things) 67 students Darley & Batson (1973). “Good Samaritan study” 28 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality - When helped, this person said he had just taken his medication, he would be ok in a few minutes he would like to be left alone 29 - On way to other building: students had to pass a person seemengly in need of help - Independent variable: half of the subjects were told they had to hurry because they were late - after some minutes of preparation, subjects were given a map showing room in another building where they had to go to give the talk Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality - Quest oriented people did not insist ( r = -.54 ) - Intrinsic oriented people insisted more likely on help ( r =.43 ) (preprogrammed helping style – not affected by needs) When helped, and being told victim did not want help: (less help by people in hurry, no effect of theme) religious scale measures enable no prediction 16 of 40 subjects (40%) offered help Results 30 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality 31 Bateson’s interpretation (Intrinsic more egoistic) sometimes questioned relatively small samples of students (generalizability?) correlations often small Critique: Quest-orientation: better prediction of helping behavior, help is more motivated by needs of the helped person Intrinsic oriented: helpfulness to some extent serves own needs of helper (more egoistic) Summary result of Batson’ studies: Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality two additional measures: Extrinsic and intrinsic distinction too restricted 32 Problem of social desirability as confounding variable Extrinsic scale positively correlated with prejudice Intrinsic scale not or weakly negatively correlated PREJUDICE Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality authoritarian submission authoritarian aggression conventionalism 33 Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) (Altenmayer, 1982 etc) authoritarianism focuses on three attitudinal clusters: – rigid, dogmatic style of religiousness Religious Fundamentalism Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality high RF correlated with high RWA low Quest scores and high RF scores are positively correlated to prejudice In many studies, 34 0 7 2 11 Racial/ethnic groups Gay/lesbian persons RWA Total 2 0 1 0 0 5 0 1 4 - 8 0 4 3 + 5 0 2 1 0 E 4 2 2 0 - 0 0 0 0 + 8 0 2 3 0 Quest 13 4 7 2 - 44 13 17 5 + 6 0 0 6 0 Psychology of Religous Beliefs Morality 35 0 0 0 0 - Rel.Fundam. Note: Sixteen studies included, some with multiple samples and/or multiple measures „+,“ significant positive relationship between religious orientation and intolerance; „0,“ no relationship; „-,“ significant negative relationship. Adapted from Hunsberger and Jackson (after Spilka et al) + Type of intolerance I Religious orientation measure Relationships between Four Religious Orientations and Measures of Intolerance: A Survey of Studies from 1990 to 2003