An Envelope
Imagine that you find an envelope with $100 and no way to trace the owner. Write down what you would do and why.
Now think about the following questions:
- Would this change if someone were watching?
- Woudl this change if you believed a god was watching?
- Would it change if you were being recorded.If a camera were recording?
Prosociality, Religion and Ethis
There are several main claims in this paper, Norenzayan, A., & Shariff, A. F. (2008). The Origin and Evolution of Religious Prosociality. Science, 322(5898), 58–62. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1158757
- Surveys show religious people report giving more
- Self-reports can be unreliable (maybe religious people feel they should claim to be more generous)
- In behavioral studies, the effect appears mainly when people feel watched or reputation is at stake.
- Reminding people of God, or of secular authority like courts, increases generosity.
- Moralizing gods are more common in larger societies.
- Religious prosociality is mostly directed at the ingroup.
Thinking Through Motivations for Moral Action
In small groups, rank these from most to least morally admirable:
- Donating anonymously because you feel empathy
- Donating openly at a public event
- Helping a stranger to avoid feeling guilty
- Behaving honestly because you fear punishment
- Behaving honestly because you believe a god is watching
We’ll report back in the main room.
Gyges and the Moral Benefits of Being Monitored
Let’s watch this short video about a story from Plato’s Republic. You may know the story well.
https://www.ted.com/talks/alex_gendler_plato_s_allegory_of_the_ring
This is directly relevant to our case, because the argument is, in part, that monitoring is, in social animals, a way that prosociality is policed.
Aside: Is all ethics transactional?
If there’s something in this, then maybe our prosociality (our generosity, or goodness, or kindness) is not entirely disinterested. Maybe we do these things because a) we may glean some kind of unexpected benefit and b) we fear social disapproval. For example, generosity often has some kind of payback in terms of reputation, This leads some philosophers, like Derrida, to ask whether there is a gift that escapes “economic” or transactional reasoning (see his book Counterfeit Money).
Monitoring, Ethics and Religion
- If you behave well only when watched, are you good or just well-monitored?
- Does it matter if the watcher is imaginary?
- Would you stay honest if invisible? What does the paper add?
- This paper provides some evidence that religion can lead to more moral action. But what does this account leave out?