Going to church can make you more popular and appear trustworthy, study finds
- People who invest more in religious activity are seen as more trustworthy
- They're seen are more generous and are sought out by others who need support
- A researcher studied religious practice in two villages in rural South India
- She found that individuals who worship regularly and carry out greater and costlier public religious acts are more likely to provide others with support
- Those people are also better able to call on support and have a greater likelihood of reciprocal relationships
Community members who invest more in religious activity are viewed as more trustworthy and generous, research has found.
As such, these people are often sought out by others who need support.
The research, which analyzed religious practice and social support networks in South India, suggests that religious practice is taken as a signal of trustworthiness, generosity and prosociality - behaviors that benefit other people or society as whole.
Dr Eleanor Power of the Santa Fe Institute analyzed how the nature of people's religious practice correlates with the structure of their social support networks in two villages in South India. She wanted to find out if people that show greater religiosity are more likely to undertake acts that benefit others. Pictured is a religious devotee placing red powder on a carving of Kala Bhairava at the temple of Nanjangud, South India
Around 80 per cent of people around the glove identify with a religion, and researchers have been studying the evolutionary benefit of religious practice since the early 2000's.
In a study published by Dr Eleanor Power of the Santa Fe Institute, she writes that active religious participation may benefit practitioners by strengthening social bonds.
She said that while lab-based experiments have suggested that religious behavior may increase prosocial qualities like generosity and trustworthiness, few researchers have studied this question in a real community.
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So Dr Power analyzed the how the nature of people's religious practice correlates with the structure of their social support networks in two villages in South India.
She wanted to find out if people that show greater religiosity are more likely to undertake acts that benefit others.
To do this, she collected ethnographically informed data - observational data that described people's and cultures.
Pictured is a woman lighting an oil lamp to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. On the night of the new moon in the Tamil month of Aippasi, Hindu families counter the dark by decorating their homes with kolams (geometric designs drawn with rice flour) and oil lamps, and setting off sparklers and fireworks. Performing such religious acts may help individuals build strong, trusting relationships with others
How people embody their religion in public can vary in difficulty and costliness.
A single trip to attend a religious service doesn't require much effort or money, but regular visits require greater commitment.
Sacrificial offerings may not be difficult, but they are expensive.
Some activities, like making a long pilgrimage or piercing the body with hooks and spears, are both physically and financially demanding.
Through statistical analysis, Dr Power found that individuals who worship regularly and carry out greater and costlier public religious acts are more likely to provide others with support of all types. Those people are better able to call on support and have a greater likelihood of reciprocal relationships
Through statistical analysis, Dr Power found that individuals who worship regularly and carry out greater and costlier public religious acts are more likely to provide others with support of all types.
Those people are better able to call on support and have a greater likelihood of reciprocal relationships.
'Providing support to others means that one is more able to draw on support oneself,' writes Dr Power in the new paper.
In the South Indian communities in the study, most residents are poor, don't have access to bank accounts, and they rely on family and friends to help with farming, home-building and other crucial tasks
'These religious acts make a lot of sense when you look at the social benefit,' said Dr Power.
In the South Indian communities in the study, most residents are poor, don't have access to bank accounts, and they rely on family and friends to help with farming, home-building and other crucial tasks.
'So if your religious practice influences the likelihood and strength of those relationships, you'll be much better able to withstand the vagaries of life,' said Dr Power.
GLOBAL RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE - IN NUMBERS
According to the Pew Research Center, more than 80 per cent of people across the world identify with a religious group.
The study looked at more than 230 countries and territories, and estimated that there are 5.8 billion adults and children with religious affiliations around the globe, representing 84% of the 2010 world population of 6.9 billion.
The study found 2.2 billion Christians (32% of the world’s population), 1.6 billion Muslims (23%), 1 billion Hindus (15%), nearly 500 million Buddhists (7%) and 14 million Jews (0.2%) around the world as of 2010.
Figure showing the results of the Pew Research Center's survey on the global religious landscape - December 2012
In addition, more than 400 million people (6%) practice various folk or traditional religions, including African traditional religions, Chinese folk religions, Native American religions and Australian aboriginal religions.
An estimated 58 million people – slightly less than 1% of the global population – belong to other religions, including the Baha’i faith, Jainism, Sikhism, Shintoism, Taoism, Tenrikyo, Wicca and Zoroastrianism.
Roughly one-in-six people around the globe (1.1 billion, or 16%) have no religious affiliation.
This makes this group the third-largest religious group worldwide, behind Christians and Muslims - about equal to the world’s Catholic population.
Surveys indicated that many of the unaffiliated hold some religious or spiritual beliefs (such as belief in God or a universal spirit) even though they do not identify with a particular faith.
Source: Pew Research Center
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