An Experimental Test of the Relationship Between Religion and Gratitude

摘要

Although gratitude is an important component of religion, very little research exists on the relationship between religion and gratitude. Most research is correlational and relies on self-report measures. We addressed these limitations by experimentally manipulating religious salience and by including a behavioral measure of gratitude. We examined the relationship between religion and two forms of gratitude: (a) grateful reactions to a specific, standardized favor, and (b) self-reported grateful personality. Eighty-one female undergraduate students received a religious or neutral prime, and then received a positive outcome ostensibly from another participant or from random chance. Results demonstrated that intrinsic religiousness was positively associated with grateful disposition but not with self-report or behavioral gratitude for the specific favor. Intrinsic religion was also positively associated with self-reported motivation to express appreciation, but only in the presence of a religious prime and in the absence of a favor. The religious prime had a marginal main effect, facilitating prosocial behaviors but not gratitude. These results provide important qualifications for the positive relationship between religion and gratitude reported in previous research.