<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><div style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto">I don't know about this. This study seems to look mostly at men, who are just more likely to be assholes by nature. Most of the women at the churches I have attended are very caring and <SPAN style="RIGHT: auto" id=misspell-0><SPAN>compassionate</SPAN></SPAN>. And many of the women I work with in providing care are religious and are the most caring people I know. </SPAN></div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto"></SPAN> </div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto">I think there can be a big difference between people that are <SPAN style="RIGHT: auto" id=misspell-1><SPAN>religious</SPAN></SPAN> and those that are spiritual. I believe in God and Christ very much, and is a major reason why I care for the for elderly and <SPAN style="RIGHT: auto" id=misspell-2><SPAN>disabled</SPAN></SPAN>. However, I don't exactly follow any religion, just the very basics of the Catholic Church, and not really that either.</SPAN></div>
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<div style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto">I also don't consider the Pope and Cardinals really holy. To me, they are just self-important administrators. I never see them or talk to them. The holy people are the nuns, monks, deacons, active members of the church, and loyal members of the <SPAN style="RIGHT: auto" id=misspell-3><SPAN>congregation</SPAN></SPAN>. Those people are usually great. If I see a cardinal or even a bishop, I just assume walk the other way as he is probably really odd and I am unable to relate to them. Even <SPAN style="RIGHT: auto" id=misspell-4><SPAN>priest</SPAN></SPAN>s nowadays are just busy tools saying one mass from church to church as they are so few of them left.</SPAN></div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto"></SPAN> </div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto">I think many <SPAN style="RIGHT: auto" id=misspell-0><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto">atheists</SPAN></SPAN> confuse a <SPAN style="RIGHT: auto" id=misspell-5><SPAN>religious</SPAN></SPAN> person from that of a fanatical self important man that claims religion to <SPAN style="RIGHT: auto" id=misspell-6><SPAN>justify</SPAN></SPAN> their radical beliefs or unethical behavior. </SPAN></div>
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<div style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto">Donovan Arnold</SPAN></div>
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<DIV style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #ccc 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; LINE-HEIGHT: 0; MARGIN: 5px 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; HEIGHT: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 0px; BORDER-TOP: #ccc 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-TOP: 0px" class=hr contentEditable=false readonly="true"></DIV><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> Art Deco <art.deco.studios@gmail.com><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> vision2020@moscow.com <BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Monday, April 30, 2012 3:40 PM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> [Vision2020] Highly religious people are less motivated by compassion than are non-believers<BR></FONT></DIV><BR>
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<H1 class="yiv1431738826post-title yiv1431738826entry-title"><A title="Highly religious people are less motivated by compassion than are non-believers" href="http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/04/30/religionandgenerosity/" rel=nofollow target=_blank>Highly religious people are less motivated by compassion than are non-believers</A></H1>
<div class=yiv1431738826byline><SPAN class="yiv1431738826byline-prep yiv1431738826byline-prep-author">By</SPAN> <A title="Contact the author" href="mailto:yanwar@berkeley.edu?subject=RE:%20Highly%20religious%20people%20are%20less%20motivated%20by%20compassion%20than%20are%20non-believers" rel=nofollow target=_blank ymailto="mailto:yanwar@berkeley.edu?subject=RE:%20Highly%20religious%20people%20are%20less%20motivated%20by%20compassion%20than%20are%20non-believers">Yasmin <SPAN id=misspell-0 class=mark>Anwar</SPAN></A>, Media Relations <SPAN class="yiv1431738826byline-prep yiv1431738826byline-prep-published">|</SPAN> April 30, 2012 </div>
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<div>“Love thy neighbor” is preached from many a pulpit. But new research from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that the highly religious are less motivated by compassion when helping a stranger than are atheists, agnostics and less religious people.</div>
<DIV style="WIDTH: 250px" class="yiv1431738826wp-caption yiv1431738826alignright"><IMG alt="" src="http://www.berkeley.edu/news2/2012/04/PriestPraying250.jpg" width=250 height=350>
<div class=yiv1431738826wp-caption-text>Study finds highly religious people are less motivated by compassion to show generosity than are non-believers</div></DIV>
<div>In three experiments, social scientists found that compassion consistently drove less religious people to be more generous. For highly religious people, however, compassion was largely unrelated to how generous they were, according to the <A href="http://spp.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/04/25/1948550612444137.full.pdf+html" rel=nofollow target=_blank>findings</A> which are published in the most recent <SPAN id=misspell-1 class=mark>online</SPAN> issue of the journal <I>Social Psychological and Personality Science.</I></div>
<div><I></I>The results challenge a widespread assumption that acts of generosity and charity are largely driven by feelings of empathy and compassion, researchers said. In the study, the link between compassion and generosity was found to be stronger for those who identified as being non-religious or less religious.</div>
<div>“Overall, we find that for less religious people, the strength of their emotional connection to another person is critical to whether they will help that person or not,” said <SPAN id=misspell-2 class=mark>UC</SPAN> Berkeley social psychologist Robb <SPAN id=misspell-3 class=mark>Willer</SPAN>, a co-author of the study. “The more religious, on the other hand, may ground their generosity less in emotion, and more in other factors such as doctrine, a communal identity, or <SPAN id=misspell-4 class=mark>reputational</SPAN> concerns.”</div>
<div>Compassion is defined in the study as an emotion felt when people see the suffering of others which then motivates them to help, often at a personal risk or cost.</div>
<div>While the study examined the link between religion, compassion and generosity, it did not directly examine the reasons for why highly religious people are less compelled by compassion to help others. However, researchers hypothesize that deeply religious people may be more strongly guided by a sense of moral obligation than their more non-religious counterparts.</div>
<div>“We hypothesized that religion would change how compassion impacts generous behavior,” said study lead author Laura <SPAN id=misspell-5 class=mark>Saslow</SPAN>, who conducted the research as a doctoral student at <SPAN id=misspell-6 class=mark>UC</SPAN> Berkeley.</div>
<div><SPAN id=misspell-7 class=mark>Saslow</SPAN>, who is now a postdoctoral scholar at <SPAN id=misspell-8 class=mark>UC</SPAN> San Francisco, said she was inspired to examine this question after an altruistic, nonreligious friend lamented that he had only donated to earthquake recovery efforts in Haiti after watching an emotionally stirring video of a woman being saved from the rubble, not because of a logical understanding that help was needed.</div>
<div>“I was interested to find that this experience – an atheist being strongly influenced by his emotions to show generosity to strangers – was replicated in three large, systematic studies,” <SPAN id=misspell-9 class=mark>Saslow</SPAN> said.</div>
<div>In the first experiment, researchers analyzed data from a 2004 national survey of more than 1,300 American adults. Those who agreed with such statements as “When I see someone being taken advantage of, I feel kind of protective towards them” were also more inclined to show generosity in random acts of kindness, such as loaning out belongings and offering a seat on a crowded bus or train, researchers found.</div>
<div>When they looked into how much compassion motivated participants to be charitable in such ways as giving money or food to a homeless person, non-believers and those who rated low in religiosity came out ahead: “These findings indicate that although compassion is associated with pro-<SPAN id=misspell-10 class=mark>sociality</SPAN> among both less religious and more religious individuals, this relationship is particularly robust for less religious individuals,” the study found.</div>
<div>In the second experiment, 101 American adults watched one of two brief videos, a neutral video or a heartrending one, which showed portraits of children afflicted by poverty. Next, they were each given 10 “lab dollars” and directed to give any amount of that money to a stranger. The least religious participants appeared to be motivated by the emotionally charged video to give more of their money to a stranger.</div>
<div>“The compassion-inducing video had a big effect on their generosity,” <SPAN id=misspell-11 class=mark>Willer</SPAN> said. “But it did not significantly change the generosity of more religious participants.”</div>
<div>In the final experiment, more than 200 college students were asked to report how compassionate they felt at that moment. They then played “economic trust games” in which they were given money to share – or not – with a stranger. In one round, they were told that another person playing the game had given a portion of their money to them, and that they were free to reward them by giving back some of the money, which had since doubled in amount.</div>
<div>Those who scored low on the religiosity scale, and high on momentary compassion, were more inclined to share their winnings with strangers than other participants in the study.</div>
<div>“Overall, this research suggests that although less religious people tend to be less trusted in the U.S., when feeling compassionate, they may actually be more inclined to help their fellow citizens than more religious people,” <SPAN id=misspell-12 class=mark>Willer</SPAN> said.</div>
<div>In addition to <SPAN id=misspell-13 class=mark>Saslow</SPAN> and <SPAN id=misspell-14 class=mark>Willer</SPAN>, other co-authors of the study are <SPAN id=misspell-15 class=mark>UC</SPAN> Berkeley psychologists <SPAN id=misspell-16 class=mark>Dacher</SPAN> <SPAN id=misspell-17 class=mark>Keltner</SPAN>, Matthew <SPAN id=misspell-18 class=mark>Feinberg</SPAN> and Paul <SPAN id=misspell-19 class=mark>Piff</SPAN>; Katharine Clark at the University of Colorado, Boulder; and Sarina Saturn at Oregon State University.</div>
<div>The study was funded by grants from <SPAN id=misspell-20 class=mark>UC</SPAN> Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, <SPAN id=misspell-21 class=mark>UC</SPAN> Berkeley’s Center for the Economics and Demography of Aging, and the <SPAN id=misspell-22 class=mark>Metanexus</SPAN> Institute.</div></DIV><BR clear=all><BR>-- <BR>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<BR><A href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" rel=nofollow target=_blank ymailto="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</A><BR></DIV><BR>=======================================================<BR>List services made available by First Step Internet,<BR>serving the communities of the <SPAN id=misspell-23 class=mark>Palouse</SPAN> since 1994.<BR> <A href="http://www.fsr.net/" target=_blank>http://www.fsr.net</A><BR> <SPAN id=misspell-24 class=mark>mailto</SPAN>:<A href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com"
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