Do religious people give more than atheists?
A new study reveals the answer is not as straightforward as you might think.
Researchers from Linköping University in Sweden found that religious believers are no more generous than atheists—unless they know the recipient shares their religion.
This tendency to favor their own group, however, was observed in both religious people and atheists.
The study, led by postdoctoral researchers Nathalie Hallin, an atheist, and Hajdi Moche, a Christian, explored how religious belief influences generosity.
They teamed up with co-authors Gerhard Andersson and Daniel Persson to conduct three studies in Sweden, the U.S., and a combined study in Egypt and Lebanon.
Their findings were published in the journal Judgment and Decision Making.
In the Swedish study, 398 participants were asked to distribute fictional money among themselves and three hypothetical recipients across six rounds.
Each round included some information about the recipients, such as their favorite hobbies, political views, or film genres. In one round, participants were told the recipients’ religious beliefs.
The researchers analyzed whether this information influenced how much money the participants gave away. Surprisingly, in most rounds, there was no difference between the generosity of religious and non-religious participants. However, when religion was mentioned, a clear difference emerged:
- Religious people gave more money to recipients who shared their religion.
- Atheists also showed a preference for others who identified as atheists, despite having no shared belief system.
“I was surprised because atheists don’t have a unifying belief, unlike religious groups,” said Hallin.
The researchers conducted follow-up studies with over 700 participants in the U.S. and about 600 participants in Egypt and Lebanon.
These studies confirmed the findings from Sweden: Religion had the strongest influence on generosity. Participants in all three countries were most generous toward people with the same religious background as themselves.
When comparing the generosity of different groups—Christians, Muslims, and atheists—the results varied:
- In the U.S., Muslims were more generous to fellow Muslims than Christians or atheists were to their own groups.
- In Sweden, there were hints of this same trend among Muslims, but the number of Muslim participants was too small to draw firm conclusions.
- In Egypt and Lebanon, Christians and Muslims were equally generous toward their own groups, but the number of atheists in these countries was too low for comparison.
The researchers emphasized that their findings highlight how deeply group identity—religious or not—affects generosity. While favoring one’s own group might seem unfair, it is still better than not being generous at all, they noted.
“Generosity comes in many forms,” said Moche. “It can involve money, time, love, or care. Whether religion encourages financial generosity specifically is worth thinking about.”
Ultimately, the study shows that generosity is often influenced by our sense of belonging and shared identity, regardless of whether that identity is religious or not.
