Religion and Trust: An Experimental Study

We investigate the relationship between religion and trust. Using a questionnaire, we measure: i) general religiosity, and; ii) the extent of religious beliefs, experience, and ritual. These are then analyzed with behavior in a trust game (Berg et al., Games and Economic Behavior, 1995), which we also extend by providing information of a potential trustee’s religiosity in certain tasks. We find that trusting increases with the potential trustee’s religiosity. The extent to which trusting increases with a trustee’s religiosity, in turn, increases with a truster’s religiosity. Trustworthiness also increases with religiosity, and at an increasing rate. PsycINFO classification: 2920, 3020 JEL classification: C72, C91, Z12