Prayer and Charitable Behavior

Abstract

I propose a theoretical framework to understand how prayer influences charitable volunteering and financial giving. Drawing on work from symbolic interaction and cognitive psychology, I argue that individuals’ concepts of divine others become more cognitively accessible during the act of prayer. Because most people attribute the characteristics of omniscience and the desire for humans to help others to divine others, people are more likely to help known and unknown others the more cognitively accessible divine other concepts are to them. This lead to the prediction that frequency of prayer will be positively and linearly association with the frequency of volunteering, frequency of giving money to charity, and amount of money given to charity in a year. Using data from the General Social Survey, I find evidence for my argument. Frequency of prayer is positively and linearly associated with these charitable behaviors, even after controlling for other religiosity and sociodemographic variables.