Religiousness and Ethical Behavior

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Bachelor Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: 1.3, University of Heidelberg (Alfred-Weber-Institut für Wirtschaftswissenschaften), course: Behavioral Economics, language: English, abstract: Many times and across disciplines, religiousness has been proposed to positively influence ethical behavior, but empirical findings were often inconclusive or contradictory. Following recent studies, this study discerns between religious beliefs, commitment as well as participation and conjectures that religious participation alone does not have an effect on ethical conduct, but only in interaction with religious beliefs or religious commitment. Furthermore it is proposed that religious people are stricter when it comes to misbehavior in private contexts, but equally strict as non-religious people when the victim of that behavior is society. Using a large Dutch population sample, this study indicates that the effect of a religious attitude in terms of affection or cognition to be stronger when church services are attended regularly. In accordance with expectations, religious adherence and a strong religious commitment are found to have a significantly negative influence on the acceptance of unethical behavior. However, contrary to prior expectations, religious beliefs alone seem to have a positive impact on the willingness to justify certain transgressions. Looking at the victim of misbehavior, the results do not imply a general tendency that religious people discern more between misbehavior in private and in public contexts than non-religious people do.