1 Did the Devil Make Them Do It ? The Effects of Religion in Public Goods and Trust Games

Objective: To test whether religious affiliation and participation are associated with cooperation and trust in a controlled experimental setting. Methods: We match the results of individual survey responses on religious affiliation and participation to the actions of respondents in human subject experiments; we measure cooperation and trust as other-regarding behavior in canonical public goods and trust games. Results: Religious affiliation is unrelated to behavior in public goods and trust experiments; further, there is at best only weak evidence that attendance at religious services is correlated with behavior in these games. Conclusions: Contrary to popular wisdom and several recent observational studies, religion is not strongly associated with more other-regarding behavior in controlled experiments.