Religiosity predicts the delegation of decisions between moral and self-serving immoral outcomes

Abstract

Studies support an association between religious belief and prosocial behavior. Such religious prosociality has been attributed to fear of supernatural punishment and enhanced concern for a prosocial reputation and self-image. Hence, religious individuals may be more prone to pursue their self-interest indirectly, thereby averting personal responsibility. We conducted 12 studies (N_total = 4468) to examine whether religiosity predicts delegation in incentivized deception, dictator, and die-roll cheating games and in realistic scenarios. Participants could choose between an immoral (e.g., lying) and a moral, prosocial (e.g., honest/fair) option or leave this decision to another individual (the agent) who equally benefited from the immoral option. Across all studies, religiosity positively predicted delegation, even though participants could directly implement prosocial outcomes. Employing experimental manipulations of participants' interests, we found that the predictive effect of religiosity on delegation only emerged when participants could expect to benefit from the agent's decision, but not when they were not affected by it or could be harmed by it. At the same time, religiosity predicted prosocial decisions among non-delegating participants. Moreover, delegating participants felt less bad and responsible about their decisions and victims' outcomes. Taken together, these findings suggest that delegation is strategically employed by individuals who would otherwise act prosocially to pursue selfish interests while avoiding responsibility and blame. They further support the notion of religious prosociality as a multi-faceted, context-dependent phenomenon.