Between Karma and Buddha: Prosocial Behavior among Mongolians in an Anonymous Economic Game

IF 1.7 2区 哲学 Q2 PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY International Journal for the Psychology of Religion Pub Date : 2020-04-02 DOI:10.1080/10508619.2019.1696497
Renatas Berniūnas, V. Dranseika, Delgermend Tserendamba
{"title":"Between Karma and Buddha: Prosocial Behavior among Mongolians in an Anonymous Economic Game","authors":"Renatas Berniūnas, V. Dranseika, Delgermend Tserendamba","doi":"10.1080/10508619.2019.1696497","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Norenzayan and colleagues argue that culturally evolved beliefs in monitoring and punishing supernatural agents contributed to the expansion of large-scale cooperation. Previous studies showed that Western participants primed with the God concept in anonymous dictator games tended to be more prosocial. However, there is a lack of studies that would investigate karmic beliefs and its effect on pro-sociality, thus expanding the scope of supernatural punishment hypothesis. The current study is one of the first attempts to address the question of belief in karma and its relation to prosocial behavior in a non-Western Buddhist culture. Using karma as a prime and a dictator game to measure generosity, the present study was carried out with Mongolians. Overall, Mongolians were rather generous. While we did not find the effect of the karma prime, there remains a possibility that this effect was masked by overall generosity. However, first, it is argued that the Mongolian Buddhist conceptions of karma (üiliin ür) and merit (buyan), intertwined with nomadic generosity norms, might have facilitated prosocial behavior among Mongolians. Second, results from regression analyses highlighted some variation between self-ascribed Buddhist and non-religious Mongolians, showing that Buddhist participants tended to give slightly more than non-religious participants. Third, the current results also indicate that belief in Buddha with God-like attributes, though espoused by a non-negligible number of Buddhist Mongolians, is not unanimous. And those who expressed this belief were no more generous than those who did not.","PeriodicalId":47234,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for the Psychology of Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2020-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10508619.2019.1696497","citationCount":"8","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal for the Psychology of Religion","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2019.1696497","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 8

Abstract

ABSTRACT Norenzayan and colleagues argue that culturally evolved beliefs in monitoring and punishing supernatural agents contributed to the expansion of large-scale cooperation. Previous studies showed that Western participants primed with the God concept in anonymous dictator games tended to be more prosocial. However, there is a lack of studies that would investigate karmic beliefs and its effect on pro-sociality, thus expanding the scope of supernatural punishment hypothesis. The current study is one of the first attempts to address the question of belief in karma and its relation to prosocial behavior in a non-Western Buddhist culture. Using karma as a prime and a dictator game to measure generosity, the present study was carried out with Mongolians. Overall, Mongolians were rather generous. While we did not find the effect of the karma prime, there remains a possibility that this effect was masked by overall generosity. However, first, it is argued that the Mongolian Buddhist conceptions of karma (üiliin ür) and merit (buyan), intertwined with nomadic generosity norms, might have facilitated prosocial behavior among Mongolians. Second, results from regression analyses highlighted some variation between self-ascribed Buddhist and non-religious Mongolians, showing that Buddhist participants tended to give slightly more than non-religious participants. Third, the current results also indicate that belief in Buddha with God-like attributes, though espoused by a non-negligible number of Buddhist Mongolians, is not unanimous. And those who expressed this belief were no more generous than those who did not.
查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
因果报应与佛祖之间:一个匿名经济游戏中蒙古人的亲社会行为
摘要Norenzayan及其同事认为,监控和惩罚超自然力量的文化进化信念有助于扩大大规模合作。先前的研究表明,在匿名独裁者游戏中,西方参与者对上帝概念的理解往往更亲社会。然而,目前缺乏研究业力信仰及其对亲社会性的影响,从而扩大了超自然惩罚假说的范围。目前的研究是首次尝试解决非西方佛教文化中因果报应信仰及其与亲社会行为的关系问题。利用因果报应作为衡量慷慨程度的首要因素和独裁者游戏,本研究是在蒙古人身上进行的。总的来说,蒙古人相当慷慨。虽然我们没有发现因果报应的影响,但这种影响仍然有可能被整体的慷慨所掩盖。然而,首先,有人认为,蒙古佛教的因果报应(üiliinür)和功德(buyan)概念与游牧民族的慷慨规范交织在一起,可能促进了蒙古人的亲社会行为。其次,回归分析的结果突出了自称佛教徒和非宗教蒙古人之间的一些差异,表明佛教徒的贡献往往略高于非宗教参与者。第三,目前的研究结果也表明,对具有神属性的佛的信仰,尽管得到了不可忽视的蒙古佛教徒的支持,但并不是一致的。那些表达了这种信念的人并不比那些没有表达的人更慷慨。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
CiteScore
4.20
自引率
4.50%
发文量
15
期刊介绍: The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion (IJPR) is devoted to psychological studies of religious processes and phenomena in all religious traditions. This journal provides a means for sustained discussion of psychologically relevant issues that can be examined empirically and concern religion in the most general sense. It presents articles covering a variety of important topics, such as the social psychology of religion, religious development, conversion, religious experience, religion and social attitudes and behavior, religion and mental health, and psychoanalytic and other theoretical interpretations of religion. The journal publishes research reports, brief research reports, commentaries on relevant topical issues, book reviews, and statements addressing articles published in previous issues. The journal may also include a major essay and commentaries, perspective papers of the theory, and articles on the psychology of religion in a specific country.
期刊最新文献
God, Can I Give Up?: The Diverging Effects of God-Related Thoughts on Task Persistence in Chinese Buddhists and Taoists The Role of Religion in the Mental Health of Single Adults: A Mixed-Method Investigation Effects of Participating in Religious Groups on Mental Health Issues: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study Enriching the Common Core of Mystical Experience: A Qualitative Analysis of Interviews with Daoist Monks and Nuns The Existential Challenge of Religious Pluralism: Religion, Politics, and Meaning in Life
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1