This meta-analysis explores the long-standing and heavily debated question of whether religiosity is associated with prosocial and antisocial behavior at the individual level. In an analysis of 701 effects across 237 samples, encompassing 811,663 participants, a significant relationship of r = .13 was found between religiosity and prosociality (and antisociality, which was treated as its inverse). Nevertheless, there was substantial heterogeneity of effect sizes, and several potential moderators were explored. The effect was most heavily moderated by the type of measurement used to assess prosocial or antisocial behavior. Religiosity correlated more strongly with self-reported prosociality (r = .15) than with directly measured prosocial behavior (r = .06). Three possible interpretations of this moderation are discussed, namely, that (a) lab-based methods do not accurately or fully capture actual religious prosociality; (b) the self-report effect is explained by religious self-enhancement and overreports actual prosociality; or (c) both religiosity and self-reported prosociality are explained by self-enhancement. The question of whether religiosity more strongly positively predicts prosociality or negatively predicts antisociality is also explored. This moderation is, at most, weak. We test additional potential moderators, including the aspect of religiosity and type of behavior measured, the ingroup or outgroup nature of the recipient, and study characteristics. Finally, we recommend a shift in how researchers investigate questions of religiosity and prosociality in the future. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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宗教信仰预示着亲社会性，尤其是通过自我报告来衡量时：对近 60 年研究的荟萃分析。


这项荟萃分析探讨了长期存在且备受争议的问题：宗教信仰是否与个人层面的亲社会和反社会行为有关。在对 237 个样本（涵盖 811,663 名参与者）的 701 个效应进行的分析中，发现宗教信仰和亲社会性（以及反社会性，被视为其倒数）之间存在 r = 0.13 的显着关系。然而，效应大小存在很大的异质性，并且探索了一些潜在的调节因素。这种影响在很大程度上受到用于评估亲社会或反社会行为的测量类型的影响。宗教信仰与自我报告的亲社会性 (r = .15) 的相关性比直接测量的亲社会行为 (r = .06) 的相关性更强。讨论了这种温和性的三种可能的解释，即（a）基于实验室的方法不能准确或完全捕捉实际的宗教亲社会性； (b) 自我报告效应被解释为宗教自我增强，并高估了实际的亲社会性； (c) 宗教信仰和自我报告的亲社会性都可以用自我增强来解释。还探讨了宗教信仰是否更强烈地积极预测亲社会性或消极地预测反社会性的问题。这种节制至多是微弱的。我们测试了其他潜在的调节因素，包括宗教信仰方面和所测量的行为类型、接收者的内群体或外群体性质以及研究特征。最后，我们建议研究人员在未来调查宗教信仰和亲社会问题的方式发生转变。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。