Effects of Religious Music on Moral Behavior
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| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
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| Description | Research focusing on the relationship between religion and morality investigates the various mechanisms religious systems use to influence moral decision-making. Previous studies suggest that religious reminders and contexts enhance the saliency of group-specific norms and increase prosocial behavior. However, the effects of religious situational factors on dishonest behavior are less well documented. Furthermore, the underlying perceptual-behavioral mechanisms through which religious cues affect decision-making are still not fully understood. Moving beyond both the priming carrying semantic associations with moral norms and the anthropomorphic depictions triggering reputational concerns, we tested how an arbitrary subtle sensory cue associated with religion that does not bear any inherent meaning by itself affects moral behavior. Using instrumental religious music, we conducted two experiments across four different sites: Japan, Mauritius, the Czech Republic, and the USA. Participants were exposed to one of three kinds of auditory stimuli (religious, secular, or white noise), and were given a chance to cheat on the subsequent task to increase their monetary reward. We report on the cross-cultural differences as well as on the interaction between the condition and religiosity across sites. |
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