Freitag, 22. Juni 2012
Motivators in Religious Generosity
An interdisciplinary team of faculty in the Arizona State University's Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict has published a study on what factors motivate religious people to be generous. The study was funded by the John Templeton Foundation/University of Notre Dame Science of Generosity Initiative, which is a highly religious institution, and went out to determine how one person's kindness to others affects the recipient's kindness in the future and what makes the difference between those who are giving and those who aren't. Carolyn Warner, ASU School of Politics and Global Studies professor and principal investigator for the ASU project said that, "Generosity is an important part of human behavior that we don't know much about," and that, "It wouldn't hurt if there were more of it in the world."
Comparing Muslims and Catholics they tried to find out what in the religious experience might prompt generosity. Because of their focus on these two religions they traveled to Dublin, Milan, Paris and Istanbul, where they are strongly represented. Potential factors leading to generosity in a religious context were a sense of duty to one's god, the love of Jesus or Mohammad, feelings of being blessed and the two religions are organized. The group of researchers conducted interviews, observed participation in religious group activities and conducted "experiments", which were not specified any further in the article. All of these were conducted on site with people from the respective communities.
The results revealed that for members of both religions the positive experience of giving and actually connecting with the people they are helping, for example in a soup kitchen, is a powerful motivator. The same goes for a sense of giving achieved by helping out in their religious communities. Muslims feel that when they are blessed by god they have an obligation to share with those less fortunate than themselves and that they should follow in Mohammad's footsteps by being charitable. Catholics are mainly motivated by their love for Jesus.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120620143251.htm
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An interdisciplinary team of faculty in the Arizona State University's Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict has published a study on what factors motivate religious people to be generous. The John Templeton Foundation/University of Notre Dame Science of Generosity Initiative, which is a highly religious institution, [E-avoid passives if possible] tried [W,E,coh] funded the study to determine how one person’s kindness to others affects the recipient’s kindness in the future, and what makes the difference between those who are giving and those who aren't.
AntwortenLöschen[New ¶] Carolyn Warner, ASU School of Politics and Global Studies professor and principal investigator for the ASU project, [P] said, [Gr,E,coh] "Generosity is an important part of human behavior that we don't know much about," and, [s.a.] "It wouldn't hurt if there were more of it in the world." Comparing Muslims and Catholics, [P] they tried to find out what in the religious experience might prompt generosity. Because of their focus on these two religions they traveled to Dublin, Milan, Paris and Istanbul, places where the religions [foc] are strongly represented. Potential factors leading to generosity in a religious context were a sense of duty to one's god, the love of Jesus or Mohammad, feelings of being blessed, [P] and the sense of duty and belonging engendered by the organization [foc,coh,M] of the two religions.
[New ¶] The group of researchers conducted interviews, observed participation in religious group activities, [P] and conducted "experiments," [P-BE or NAE, but not a mix] which were not specified any further in the article. All of these were conducted on site with people from the respective communities. The results revealed that for members of both religions the positive experience of giving and actually connecting with the people they are helping, for example in a soup kitchen, is a powerful motivator. The same goes for a sense of giving achieved by helping out in their religious communities. Muslims feel that when they are blessed by god they have an obligation to share with those less fortunate than themselves, [P] and that they should follow in Mohammad's footsteps by being charitable. Catholics are mainly motivated by their love for Jesus.