Good without god? – The influence of religion on altruistic acts and moral disengagement.
Authors
Nolan, Catherine
Issue Date
2014
Degree
BA (Hons) in Psychology
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
Items in Esource are protected by copyright. Previously published items are made available in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher/copyright holder.
Abstract
The purpose of this quantitative, between-groups study was to investigate the relationships and differences between different religious groups (Christian, Atheist, Agnostic, Lapsed and Other) and levels of Religiosity and whether they have an effect levels of Altruism, and Moral Disengagement and it’s eight subscales: Moral Justification, Euphemistic Labelling, Advantageous Comparison, Displacement of Responsibility, Diffusion of Responsibility, Distortion of Consequences, Attribution of Blame, and Dehumanisation. A survey was collected electronically from a sample population consisting of 103 males and 94 females aged from 18 to 66. Analysis of the data showed that there was a there was no significant differences between the religious groupings when it came to levels of Altruism and Moral Disengagement, or the subscales. The total score of the Religiosity subscales significantly predicted total levels of Altruism and Moral Disengagement, concluding that it is not the specific religion that predicts these behaviours but higher levels of self-reported religiousness.