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Religion Doesn't Make Kids More Generous or Altruistic, Study Finds

posted by janrinok on Saturday November 07 2015, @11:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the thank-$DEITY dept.

"exec" writes:

Here's a discovery that could make secular parents say hallelujah: Children who grow up in non-religious homes are more generous and altruistic than children from observant families. ...

A series of experiments involving 1,170 kids from a variety of religious backgrounds found that the non-believers were more likely to share stickers with their classmates and less likely to endorse harsh punishments for people who pushed or bumped into others.

The results "contradict the common-sense and popular assumption that children from religious households are more altruistic and kind toward others," according to a study published this week in the journal Current Biology.

Worldwide, about 5.8 billion people consider themselves religious, and religion is a primary way for cultures to express their ideas about proper moral behavior — especially behavior that involves self-sacrifice for the sake of others.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @06:50AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @06:50AM (#260256)

    Arguably the non-religious are the most persecuted group to have ever existed, far outstripping Jews and the like in suffering for their lack of faith. Their suffering continues to this day with half the world prepared to cut off your head slowly on an internet live feed just for not believing in their imaginary friend.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Sunday November 08 2015, @10:36AM

    by hemocyanin (186) on Sunday November 08 2015, @10:36AM (#260290) Journal

    This is why I've never been to Alabama.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @01:53PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @01:53PM (#260338)

    Almost every day of my life I am told indirectly or to my face that my beliefs, or lack there of, are wrong. I just have to sit back and put up with it. Yet, when someone even hints to these religious retards that they might be wrong, they feel the absolute need to "defend" their beliefs. In some cases their religion even dictates they do that. And they are all totally shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you, anyone might even possibly believe differently.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @09:17PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @09:17PM (#260513)

    Maybe we can rate some common regions on their persecution ratio.

    P : X

    P - Number of persons persecute because of their belief.
    X - Number of persons killed by believer(s) because they did not believe and/or properly adhere.

    I suspect that the X value is larger than the P value for all of the follow major religious groups:
          Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Judaism