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Heaven can wait. How religion modulates temporal discounting

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Abstract

Evidence suggests that religious systems have specific effects on attentional and action control processes. The present study investigated whether religions also modulate choices that involve higher-order knowledge and the delay of gratification in particular. We tested Dutch Calvinists, Italian Catholics, and Atheists from both countries/cultures using an intertemporal choice task where participants could choose between a small immediate and a larger delayed monetary reward. Based on the Calvinist theory of predestination and the Catholic concept of a cycle of sin–confession–expiation, we predicted a reduced delay tolerance, i.e., higher discount rate, for Italian Catholics than for Dutch Calvinists, and intermediate rates for the two atheist groups. Analyses of discount rates support our hypotheses. We also found a magnitude effect on temporal discounting and faster responses for large than for small rewards across religions and countries/cultures. We conclude that temporal discounting is specifically modulated by religious upbringing rather than by generic cultural differences.

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Notes

  1. As one anonymous reviewer suggested, it could be argued that these results should not be explained in terms of individualism versus collectivism, but rather as resulting from the opposition between materialism versus spiritualism. The suggestion here would be to stress that the USA and China share a long tradition of materialism, whereas Japanese culture, in spite of its recent consumeristic turn, is much more rooted in metaphysical concepts like “muga-mushin” (no-self, no-mind) that transcend the boundaries of the physical self. This could help explaining why Chinese and Americans are more attracted by tempting short-term options (thus exhibiting higher delay discounting) than Japanese. Regardless of the merit of this hypothesis, the very fact that multiple interpretations of cultural differences are often possible and even plausible strengthens our point: a more precise and fine-grained understanding of what drives such differences is needed, and religious beliefs offer a very promising domain in that respect.

  2. Due to the practical difficulties involved in testing subjects belonging to different religious groups across two countries, we were unable to have exactly the same number of participants for each group. However, we managed to keep numerical variation across groups within reasonable limits.

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Acknowledgments

The research of the first author was funded by an ISTC-CNR intramural grant. The authors are grateful to the participants of the Intertemporal Day workshop (Rome, 29/05/2012), for providing useful comments on a previous version of this manuscript. We are also indebted to Wilfried Kunde and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful criticisms and suggestions for improvement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Goal-Oriented Agents Lab (GOAL), Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, CNR, Rome, Italy

    Fabio Paglieri

  2. Embodied Cognition Lab (EMCO), Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Anna M. Borghi & Claudia Scorolli

  3. Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, Rome, Italy

    Anna M. Borghi

  4. Cognitive Psychology Unit and Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Lorenza S. Colzato & Bernhard Hommel

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  1. Fabio Paglieri
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  2. Anna M. Borghi
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  3. Lorenza S. Colzato
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  4. Bernhard Hommel
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  5. Claudia Scorolli
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Correspondence to Fabio Paglieri or Claudia Scorolli.

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Paglieri, F., Borghi, A.M., Colzato, L.S. et al. Heaven can wait. How religion modulates temporal discounting. Psychological Research 77, 738–747 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-012-0473-5

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