I Will Put My Law in Their Minds: Social Control and Cheating Behavior Among Catholics and Protestants |
| |
| Authors: | Alain Quiamzade Nicolas Sommet Javiera Burgos Laborde Jean‐Paul L'Huillier Luigi Guiso |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'EducationUniversity of Geneva Distance Learning University, Sierre, Switzerland;2. Faculté des Sciences Sociales et PolitiquesUniversity of Lausanne;3. Departamento de Estadísticas e Información en SaludMinistry of Health of Chile;4. Einaudi Institute of Economics and Finance |
| |
| Abstract: | Catholics and Protestants differ in terms of social autonomy versus heteronomy. We propose that the regulation of behavior in accordance with social norms depends on the social control exercised by an authority for Catholics more than it does for Protestants. Two experiments measured cheating behavior (the transgression of a social norm) as a function of the religious group (Protestant vs. Catholic) and social control (with vs. without). Catholics were found to be more responsive to social control, that is, to cheat less when social control was salient, whereas Protestants' behavior did not depend on this dimension. In Study 2, intrinsic‐extrinsic religiousness was found to mediate this difference. Results are discussed in the context of the effects of public policies based on social control. |
| |
| Keywords: | religion Protestants Catholics intrinsic‐extrinsic religiousness cheating social control |
|
