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Abstract
The affective, behavioral, and cognitive influence of sexual sin is investigated in this research. In Study 1, we demonstrated that religious people watching erotic (vs. neutral) images reported greater sexual guilt, which in turn increased their willingness to self-sacrifice for a cause. Extending these results, in Study 2 we demonstrated that when recalling a time when they had committed a sexual sin (vs. no sin), people with an intrinsic religious orientation believe in a more punishing view of God (akin to the Old Testament), which in turn predicts the extent to which they engaged in painful sacrificial behavior. Overall, these results suggest that sexual sins motivate self-sacrifice to repent, especially among those with an intrinsic (vs. extrinsic) religious orientation.
Highlights
IntroductionSocial psychologists have found that not all religious individuals share the same thoughts and behaviors: Religious individuals with an intrinsic religious orientation (i.e., those that find their primary motive in religion) are more prone to experiencing guilt and more likely to confess their wrongdoings than those with an extrinsic religious orientation (i.e., those for their religion is a means to other ends)
One central feature of Christianity is the notion of sin—a theme tragically depicted in the book of Genesis when Adam and Eve disobey God by consuming the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge in Eden
Path analyses were conducted to investigate the influence of the experimental manipulation of lust on sexual guilt and self-sacrifice
Summary
Social psychologists have found that not all religious individuals share the same thoughts and behaviors: Religious individuals with an intrinsic religious orientation (i.e., those that find their primary motive in religion) are more prone to experiencing guilt and more likely to confess their wrongdoings than those with an extrinsic religious orientation (i.e., those for their religion is a means to other ends) These findings shed light on the role of motivation in religious morality, several questions remain unanswered. Research suggests that people’s concept of God is relatively stable (Kirkpatrick, 1992), yet social cognitive research has found, with a high degree of consistency, that individual differences vary across momentary situations depending on the presence of environmental cues (Bélanger, Schumpe, & Nisa, 2019; Higgins, 2008; Kruglanski & Sheveland, 2012) This suggests that, like other mental representations, the concept of God is potentially amenable to change under powerful situations. Substantiating this proposition would be a meaningful contribution to the scientific literature on religious motivation
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