Having Faith
Nothingarians: The Fear of the Unchurched in Early National America
Thomas Kidd
Journal of the Early Republic, Summer 2023, Pages 269-299
Abstract:
The term nothingarian suggests an under-studied presence in the history of the early republic: the religiously unaffiliated. Scholars routinely mention the term nothingarian, but few have examined its origins, uses, or significance in American history. Although it seems to have originated much earlier, as a term for members of the little-known Gortonist sect in Rhode Island, "nothingarian" would come to connote the irreligious, ambivalent, or unaffiliated person, one whom pollsters of religion today might call a "none," or a person of no organized religion. The fear of nothingarians was especially acute in the early republic because of the widespread disestablishment of official denominations, rapid spread of settlement on the frontier, and deep uncertainties about American national cohesion after independence. Many observers in early national America feared that disestablishment and religious choice would lead not to massive numbers of conversions, but to masses of indifferent, skeptical, or unaffiliated people. The term nothingarian is important because it was widely used (if poorly defined), and because it reflected widespread fears about preserving religious affiliation and building a new American nation in the absence of state churches or a national establishment.
Praying for Rain
José-Antonio Espín-Sánchez, Salvador Gil-Guirado & Nicholas Ryan
NBER Working Paper, June 2023
Abstract:
We study the climate as a determinant of religious belief. People believe in the divine when religious authorities (the “church”) can credibly intervene in nature on their behalf. We present a model in which nature sets the pattern of rainfall over time and the church chooses when optimally to pray in order to persuade people that it has caused the rain. We present evidence from prayers for rain in Murcia, Spain that the church follows such an optimal policy and that its prayers therefore predict rainfall. In our model, praying for rain can only persuade people to believe if the hazard of rainfall during a dry spell is increasing over time, so that the probability of rainfall is highest when people most want rain. We test this prediction in an original data set of whether ethnic groups around the world traditionally prayed for rain. We find that prayer for rain is more likely among ethnic groups dependent on intensive agriculture for subsistence and that ethnic groups facing an increasing rainfall hazard are 53% more likely to pray for rain, consistent with our model. We interpret these findings as evidence for the instrumentality of religious belief.
Catholics, Protestants and Muslims: Similar work ethics, different social and political ethics
Miguel Abellán
Journal of Comparative Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper employs data from the World Values Survey (1995–2020) and the European Values Study (1999–2020) to test three hypotheses on attitudinal differences between Catholics, Protestants and Muslims: (1) the work ethic hypothesis, which covers attitudes towards work and some fundamental characteristics of the market economy; (2) the social ethic hypothesis, which concerns interpersonal trust, ethical standards and attitudes towards gender equality; (3) the political ethic hypothesis, which involves attitudes towards democracy and political violence, institutional trust and preferences for government-organized redistribution. The empirical analysis provides very little support for the work ethic hypothesis but solid support for the social and political ethic hypothesis. Although the results should be ultimately interpreted as partial correlations, they support the following argument. Market forces and the rise of post-materialist values may have dissolved the original role of a work ethic rooted in religion (especially in the Catholic and Protestant world). Yet, the socio-political ethic associated with Catholicism, Protestantism and Islam continues to manifest itself in attitudinal differences concerning interpersonal trust, ethical standards and gender equality, and in political preferences. A complementary analysis of regions with a historically strong influence of Catholicism, Protestantism and Islam supports this argument and suggests that the current attitudinal differences between the three religions are more related to their cultural and historical legacy than to current personal commitment to their specific doctrines.
On the Importance of African Traditional Religion for Economic Behavior
Lewis Dunia Butinda et al.
NBER Working Paper, July 2023
Abstract:
Within the field of economics, despite being widespread, African traditional religions tend to be perceived as unimportant and ignored when studying economic decision-making. This study tests whether this presumption is correct. Using daily data on business decisions and performance of beer sellers in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, we study the importance of traditional religious beliefs for economic behavior and outcomes. Beer sellers perceive the risk of theft in their shops to be higher than it actually is, causing them to hold lower inventories, more frequent stock-outs, and reduced profits. We facilitate randomly-timed access to commonly-used, but typically prohibitively expensive rituals, which reduce the perceived risk of theft. We find that the rituals partially correct the beliefs about the risk of theft for sellers who report believing in the ritual’s efficacy. These sellers purchase more inventory, experience fewer stock-outs, and have larger sales, revenues, and profits. To distinguish the belief in the efficacy of the ritual from other incidental effects of participation, we analyze these outcomes for sellers who do not believe in the ritual. For these individuals, we find none of the observed effects. The findings provide evidence of the importance of African traditional religions, demonstrating that they can influence behavior and outcomes that are important for economic development.
Cultural norms and corporate fraud: Evidence from the Volkswagen scandal
Iftekhar Hasan, Felix Noth & Lena Tonzer
Journal of Corporate Finance, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examine a corporate governance role of local culture via its impact on consumer behavior following corporate scandals. Our proxy for culture is the presence of local Protestantism. Exploiting the unexpected nature of the Volkswagen (VW) diesel scandal in September 2015, we show that new registrations of VW cars decline significantly in German counties with a Protestant majority following the VW scandal. Further survey evidence shows that, compared to Catholics, Protestants respond significantly more negatively to fraud but not to environmental issues. Our findings suggest that the enforcement culture in Protestantism facilitates penalizing corporate fraud.
A quantitative examination of half-belief in superstition
Avner Caspi, Eti Shmuel & Eran Chajut
Journal of Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examined the phenomenon of half-belief in superstitions by asking two samples of participants (total N = 1,014) to report how much they practiced positive and negative superstitions and how much they believed in these superstitions. We further assessed whether demographic and psychological variables accounted for practice and belief. The results suggest that very few people show a complete lack of belief in superstitions and practice none. Some participants are calibrated believers, that is, people who practice and believe to the same extent. All others are either half-believers, who practice more than they believe or passive-believers who practice less than they believe. Age, gender, and religiosity correlated with practicing, believing, and with the discrepancy between them (i.e., with half-belief or with passive-belief). Anxiety and uncertainty are associated with practicing, believing, and the discrepancy between them, with some effects being weaker for positive than for negative superstitions. Some correlations were stronger in stressful situations (i.e., COVID-19) than prior to the pandemic.