ABSTRACT
The relations between religious involvement and moral behaviour by individuals are far from clear-cut. Reviewing the (mostly North American) literature, Hood et al. (1996; Wulff, 1997) conclude that more religious people report that they are less likely to indulge in substance
abuse, non-marital sexual behaviour, and crime than do less religious individuals, though the relations are weak. There is, however, little evidence that the more religious individuals are in fact more honest or helpful in their behaviour, although they claim that they are. As we have seen (pp. 40-1), there is some evidence that when those scoring highly on intrinsic religiosity do help, their behaviour stems from the helper’s own needs, while those high on quest tend to help according to the needs of the person receiving the help. Furthermore religious individuals tend to be high on prejudice. Although research in this area relies heavily on selfreports and is difficult to interpret, it seems to suggest that the difference between the moral behaviour of more and less religious individuals is much less than one might expect (see further discussion in Chapter 17).
