Research On Religion » pro-social behavior

Markus Schafer on Religion, Doing Good, Networks, & Triadic Closure

tonygill — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 08:00:16 +0000

How connected to other people are religious traditionalists and evangelical Christians? Contrary to the popular image that “holy rollers” are rather insular in their social dealings, Dr. Markus Schafer (Sociology, University of Toronto) shares the results of a number of studies he conducted on how linked in religious and non-religious folks are to their broader communities. Interestingly, he finds that religious traditionalists are more broadly networked than many social scientists might think, and that these connections also lead them to be more helpful in offering emotional support and personal advice to people who aren’t even religious. After a bit of discussion about how Markus came to this line of research (along with his interest in old people), Prof. Schafer elaborates on the burgeoning field of network theory and analysis. He then defines what religious traditionalists and pro-social behaviors are, further detailing how he used the Portrait of American Life Survey (PALS) to leverage this dataset in creative ways to answer some new questions. One of the more interesting findings of Prof. Schafer is how many individuals are closely linked (four closest friends) to an individual considered a religious traditionalist; roughly 60% (give or take a few percentage points) have a someone we consider to be religiously traditional within our tight network, despite such individuals being a rather small proportion of the US population as a whole. Moreover, Prof. Schafer discovers that traditionalist exhibit higher odds of offering people emotional support and personal advice, including to individuals who are not traditionalists themselves. This indicates that those religious folks are not as insular as they are often stereotyped. We discuss some of the reasons why this may be, and some possible methodological biases within the data. Dr. Schafer’s next study looks at how individuals connect their various friends, something sociologists call “triadic closure.” What this means is if Bob has a friendship with Ann and Carol, but Ann and Carol don’t know one another, triadic closure would mean that Ann and Carol do become friends thanks to Bob. (Thanks, Bob!) This is the stuff of “dense networks” and help to build close-knit communities. And again, the evidence points towards religious individuals — most specifically evangelical Christians — being very good at creating and closing these triangles, indicating that they are not as insular and “church-centric” as one might expect. It is also noted that rural folks also score high on triadic closure. Both Tony and Markus toss around some explanations for why evangelicals might be particularly good triadic closure, and we talk about the missionizing nature of evangelicals and how things like “small groups” often try to connect different people on secular interests such as horseback riding and other things. We conclude briefly with one final study Markus conducted. In this study, again making use of the PALS data, we find out that intercessory prayers have a positive impact on the optimism of the recipient of the prayers. This fits in with the network nature of much of Prof. Schafer’s work in that it gives yet another perspective on how people connect with one another in ways that have beneficial outcomes. Recorded: March 7, 2017.

RELATED LINKS

Prof. Markus Schafer’s bio at the Dept. of Sociology, University of Toronto. (View his c.v. for his many writings.)

The Portraits of American Life Study at The Association of Religion Data Archives.

RELATED PODCASTS

Rod Stark on How Religion Benefits Everyone, Including Atheists.

Bradley Wright on Christian Stereotypes.

Bradley Wright on Religion, Race, and Discrimination.

Eleanor Power on Religion, Community, and Signaling.

Sung Joon Jang on the Boy Scouts of America (Encore Presentation)

tonygill — Sun, 17 Jul 2016 08:00:31 +0000

While Tony and his son, a recently minted Eagle Scout, are at Philmont Scout Ranch on a high adventure trek, please enjoy this encore presentation from 2012. We will return on July 24 with crescent fresh episodes.

“On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty, to God and my country….” And so begins the Oath of the Boy Scouts of America, an organization now over a century old and the largest youth organization in America. It is also an organization with a global reach. To what extent are the ideals of the Boy Scouts upheld by their members, particularly into their adult years? Prof. Sung Joon Jang, research professor of criminology at Baylor University and a faculty fellow at Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion, joins us to discuss the most extensive sociological study of the Boy Scouts to date. Commissioned by the Boy Scouts and funded by the John Templeton Foundation, Prof. Jang along with his colleagues Byron Johnson and Young-Il Kim surveyed over 2,500 adults to see whether belonging to the Boy Scouts had any affect on their adult behavior and character. Their particular focus was to see whether or not becoming an Eagle Scout, the BSA’s highest award, resulted in prosocial behavior in adulthood. After discussing what it takes to become and Eagle Scout, and the methodology involved in the study, Prof. Jang discusses the results of his survey in a variety of categories including exercise & recreation, social capital, environmental stewardship, community service, goal orientation, and leadership. The study largely confirms that becoming an Eagle Scout leads to very positive outcomes later in life. Nonetheless, there are some surprising results along the way, including interesting comparisons with Boy Scouts who never made the rank of Eagle. Throughout the interview, Tony reflects upon his time in the Boy Scouts. While never achieving Eagle, Tony did work at a BSA summer camp and was active in Order of the Arrow, the BSA’s honor society. After our discussion with Prof. Jang, Tony visits with an old friend he knew back in his Scouting days, Gene Sjoberg. Gene provides colorful detail about his Eagle experience and how it has affected his life, shares a few laughs with Tony, and leaves us with perhaps the most powerful and inspiring moment in this podcast’s history. Wise advice from an outstanding citizen. Recorded: May 3, 2012.

Eagle Scouts: Merit Beyond the Badge, by Sung Joon Jang, Byron Johnson, and Young-Il Kim.

Camp Long Lake, BSA (the camp Tony and Gene worked at located in Dundee, WI).

Philmont Scout Ranch.

RELATED PODCASTS

Byron Johnson on Religion & Delinquency.

Rod Stark on How Religion Benefits Everybody (Including Atheists) .

Carolyn Warner on Religion & Generosity

tonygill — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 08:00:07 +0000

What motivates religious individuals to give, either of their time or money? And do such motivations vary across faith traditions? We look at the issue of generosity among religious communities with Carolyn Warner, professor of political science at Arizona State University, who reviews the findings of several studies she is conducting with co-researchers Adam Cohen, Ramazon Kilinc, and Christopher Hale. What makes this multi-faceted project so interesting is that, unlike previous studies that tend to focus only on Christian denominations in the U.S., Prof. Warner’s team compares Catholics and Muslims in four cities in Europe — Dublin (Ireland), Paris (France), Milan (Italy), and Istanbul (Turkey). In each city they survey and conduct some interesting experiments on both Catholic parishes and Muslim organizations. In other words, not only are the researchers examining Catholics in Ireland, but they make sure to study Muslims in that same city. Likewise, they find a Catholic population in Istanbul to compare as well.

We start with a discussion on the difference between charity and generosity, a difference that Carolyn and her co-authors find to be very important. Whereas the former term (charity) indicates a relationship that is vertical — between a “superior” handing down something to an “inferior” — the term generosity tends to be more horizontal in its meaning. Carolyn then talks about the general sociological issues involved in studying generosity, noting that individual and community giving represent a collective action problem and the acts of generosity can be viewed as either public goods or club goods depending on the target population of the generous acts. In general, club goods are directed towards members within the religious community (e.g., Catholics helping fellow Catholics in the parish), whereas the public good aspect of generosity refers to giving beyond the boundaries of one’s spiritual community (e.g., Muslims aiding non-Muslims).

We note that religion has always been attributed with generous giving and we review some of the general reasons why scholars believe religion has a positive effect. Carolyn mentions various aspects that have been explored in the past, including the role that community plays, the institutional setting, ritualistic behavior, heightened sensitivity to the plight of others that religious ideas impart, and theological exhortations to give. Given the inter-disciplinary composition of Carolyn’s research team, Tony asks how difficult it was for a social psychologist (Adam Cohen) and a political economist (Carolyn) to talk with one another and come to a mutual understanding of what might be at play in the act of generosity. Following this Carolyn explains the rationale for choosing the various research sites and the groups studied, including why the Gülen movement was chosen as the specific Muslim group to examine. This portion of the conversation encompasses the (supposedly) relevant differences in organizational structure and theology between Catholics and Muslims.

We then turn to the results of this study, focusing first on the findings from the semi-structured interviews. Carolyn notes how Catholics tended to frame their generosity in terms of “love of Jesus” and “love of others,” often pulling from Matthew 25:40, whereas Muslims tended to emphasize duty to God, noting that Allah had given individuals gifts and it was thus important to use those gifts to help others. We also discuss the differences in ritualistic giving behavior and how that motivates generosity within these two groups. Despite these differences, the research team discovered that both groups emphasize the “sense of community” as a motivational prompt for helping others. This sense of community is not only the desire to help others, but as with any other social organization, the desire to be with others. She also addresses whether or not these charitable activities were oriented towards in-group giving (i.e., club goods) or out-group (i.e., public good). This discussion is more nuanced than one might think with an interesting observation about Catholics in Istanbul and their socio-legal standing.

We finish with a discussion of the experiment that Carolyn’s team carried out. She describes the methodology and findings of the experiment. In addition to quirky problems that always arise when conducting social scientific research, the research team was surprised to find out that the Muslim participants did give their fee for participating in an experiment to a specific group, but not a group that they had initially anticipated. And if you are listening closely during this part of the interview you can hear Rocky J. Barkington, the official canine mascot of Research on Religion, providing some insightful commentary in the background. Carolyn then shares her broad-based conclusions regarding what the research team has found to date, including some thoughts on whether or not religious charity might substitute for government provision of social welfare. Recorded: May 29,2013.

RELATED LINKS

Carolyn Warner’s bio at Arizona State University.

Description of Warner’s generosity project at The Science of Generosity Initiative at the University of Notre Dame.

The Best System Money Can Buy: Corruption in the European Union, by Carolyn Warner.

Confessions of an Interest Group: The Catholic Church and Political Parties in Europe, by Carolyn Warner.

RELATED PODCASTS

Michael McBride on Religious Free-Riding and the Mormon Church.

Dan Hungerman on Religious Charity and Crowding Out.

Sung Joon Jang on the Boy Scouts of America

tonygill — Mon, 14 May 2012 08:00:08 +0000

Welcome to our Scouting visitors. If you are new to this site, please visit our extensive archives (of over 100 episodes) that are free and make useful teaching tools. And join us on Facebook to stay abreast of upcoming interviews and other news.

“On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty, to God and my country….” And so begins the Oath of the Boy Scouts of America, an organization now over a century old and the largest youth organization in America. It is also an organization with a global reach. To what extent are the ideals of the Boy Scouts upheld by their members, particularly into their adult years? Prof. Sung Joon Jang, an associate professor of sociology at Baylor University and a faculty fellow at Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion, joins us to discuss the most extensive sociological study of the Boy Scouts to date. Commissioned by the Boy Scouts and funded by the John Templeton Foundation, Prof. Jang along with his colleagues Byron Johnson and Young-Il Kim surveyed over 2,500 adults to see whether belonging to the Boy Scouts had any affect on their adult behavior and character. Their particular focus was to see whether or not becoming an Eagle Scout, the BSA’s highest award, resulted in prosocial behavior in adulthood. After discussing what it takes to become and Eagle Scout, and the methodology involved in the study, Prof. Jang discusses the results of his survey in a variety of categories including exercise & recreation, social capital, environmental stewardship, community service, goal orientation, and leadership. The study largely confirms that becoming an Eagle Scout leads to very positive outcomes later in life. Nonetheless, there are some surprising results along the way, including interesting comparisons with Boy Scouts who never made the rank of Eagle. Throughout the interview, Tony reflects upon his time in the Boy Scouts. While never achieving Eagle, Tony did work at a BSA summer camp and was active in Order of the Arrow, the BSA’s honor society. After our discussion with Prof. Jang, Tony visits with an old friend he knew back in his Scouting days, Gene Sjoberg. Gene provides colorful detail about his Eagle experience and how it has affected his life, shares a few laughs with Tony, and leaves us with perhaps the most powerful and inspiring moment in this podcast’s two-year history. Wise advice from an outstanding citizen. Recorded: May 3, 2012

RELATED LINKS

Prof. Sung Joon Jang’s biography at Baylor University’s Department of Sociology.

Eagle Scouts: Merit Beyond the Badge, by Sung Joon Jang, Byron Johnson, and Young-Il Kim. This link includes free access to the report discussed in today’s podcast.

Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion.

Camp Long Lake, BSA (the camp Tony and Gene worked at located in Dundee, WI).

RELATED PODCASTS

Byron Johnson on Religion & Delinquency.