Abstract
Limited research has been conducted in mainland China to explore the relationship between religious belief and prosocial behaviors such as volunteering and charitable donation. This study aims to investigate whether and how religious belief affects Chinese college students’ charitable giving and volunteering. Based on a survey of 1992 college students from five universities in Shanghai, the authors found that religious belief has a positive influence on charitable giving. Moral norms and family income level are also significant influencing factors in college students’ donation behavior. Religious belief does not affect volunteering frequency. Instead, volunteering intensity is affected by political status, social norms exerted by friends and families and volunteering motivations.
Highlights
Major religions around the world have a central tenet that advocates loving and caring for the less fortunate and have powerful calls to serve others
Based on a sample of Chinese college students, our findings indicate that, in line with most studies on this topic in other countries, religious belief has a positive influence on charitable giving among college students in mainland China
Religion-related activities are de facto restricted in China and college students may be preoccupied by schoolwork, which precludes the opportunities for religious students to volunteer in such events
Summary
Major religions around the world have a central tenet that advocates loving and caring for the less fortunate and have powerful calls to serve others. Abundant research in western countries has explored the relationship between religious belief and prosocial behaviors theoretically, empirically and experimentally (Oviedo 2016). In China, the consistution guarantees citizens freedom of religious belief, religion is strictly regulated and de facto repressed (Grim and Finke 2007; Potter 2003; Yang 2011). Based on a survey conducted by WIN-Gallup in 2012, in China, religious people approximately account for 14 percent of the population (WIN-Gallup International 2012). According to another poll, led by Institute of social Science Survey at Peking University, the China family panel studies (CFPS) in 2012, 10 percent of the total population in
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