Moral foundations and religious prosociality in Mauritius
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Recent cognitive and evolutionary research focusing on the relationship between religion and morality investigates the various mechanisms religious systems use to regulate human social behaviour. One outstanding question regards what defines and shifts in-group/out-group boundaries. Previous studies suggest that beliefs in moralistic and punitive gods may contribute to the expansion of the social circle beyond kin and kith, though few have assessed the role moral cognition plays in this expansion. Using the moral foundations questionnaire (MFQ) and two behavioural economic games among Hindu participants from the ethnically and religiously diverse island of Mauritius, we conducted two field experiments to assess prosocial behaviour. The first measures biased rule-breaking (Random Allocation Game), and the second measures prosocial giving (Dictator Game). We predicted that the higher the MFQ binding score, the higher the donation to distant anonymous recipients. We report on the effects of moral profiles; and quantitative aspects of religious beliefs (degree of belief) and practices (frequency of ritual participation) on prosocial behaviour. |
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