Events

Prof. Carlos Torelli
Professor of Marketing
Head of the Department of Business Administration
Anthony J. Petullo Professor of Business Administration
University of Illinois

ABSTRACT

Religion has been identified by international charities as an important factor to promote generosity. However, extant research on the relationship between religion and donations toward distant beneficiaries yields inconsistent findings. Whereas the universal prosociality hypothesis suggests a positive effect of religion, the minimal prosociality hypothesis argues that religious individuals donate less toward distant beneficiaries. This research identifies political ideology as a novel factor that may help to reconcile these inconsistent findings. Specifically, we theorize that religious conservatives (vs. liberals) believe more in a punitive God and are more likely to be driven by fear-based prosociality, which reduce their donations toward distant recipients. A multi-method approach provides evidence for these predictions. An analysis of average household donations from 3,080 U.S. counties reveals that in more religious counties, a pervasive conservative ideology decreases donation toward distant recipients (i.e., national charities) but not toward local churches. Three lab studies further demonstrate that religious conservatives (vs. liberals) donate less to distant beneficiaries. Furthermore, this effect is mediated by religious conservatives’ greater beliefs in a punitive God.