Religious Kids Aren’t as Good at Sharing, Study Finds

[Count Duckula]

Religious Kids Aren’t as Good at Sharing, Study Finds
Some families may think that religion helps kids become more empathetic and giving toward others, but a surprising study published in the journal Current Biology found the opposite to be true: The study revealed that children from religious backgrounds were less likely to be altruistic, defined as lacking selfishness and showing a desire to help others.

Read More:
https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/religious-kids-arent-as-good-at-sharing-study-221423445.html

 

[gerbilwoman]

How odd

 

[Obadiah]

Interesting study. I think there is probably truth in it.

At first I was thinking that as the kids get older (assuming they stick with religion, and speaking as a Christian since I've never been muslim) that they would learn to share more. I based this on my own life experiences where I have noticed that when someone helped me out by sharing something in some way with me when I needed it, it was almost always a Christian. Or on watching other Christians when they were helping out another person. (For this I'm including Mormons as Christians because much of the outside world does, and they are very good at helping and sharing with people.) But then when I look closer at the times Christians have helped or shared something, I realize that the majority of the times there was an ulterior motive that somehow benefited the Christian more than the person they were helping.

Kids have a tremendous capacity to see through this kind of thing, even if they don't have the capacity (or guts) to put it into words of criticism. And they learn from our examples very fast and at a very young age. I'm thinking maybe this is the reason for the results of this test. Maybe Christian adults in general need to learn a lesson about their own behavior rather than trying to figure out other ways to change their children's behavior. Then the changes for the better in their children's behavior will just come naturally.

Then as I read on I come to the conclusion which, sure enough, says: "For parents hoping to encourage their kids to become better at sharing, as well as be kind and helpful to others, experts recommend leading by example. It’s important to be a good role model”. Go figure.

 

[Christ_empowered]

maybe the kids in this study are being raised by really harsh, dogmatic, religious people. I mean, even The Bible will tell you that not all who call themselves Christian know The Lord. Plus, this was a multi-cultural sample, so they've lumped people from very different faiths under the "religious" group.

 

[Obadiah]

maybe the kids in this study are being raised by really harsh, dogmatic, religious people. I mean, even The Bible will tell you that not all who call themselves Christian know The Lord. Plus, this was a multi-cultural sample, so they've lumped people from very different faiths under the "religious" group.

That's a good point. It said they included kids from "Christian" and "muslim" families (because they didn't get a big enough number of kids from other religions to be usable), which in itself is indeed very different. As well as not defining what they mean by "Christian". Are they talking about the neighborhood Lutheran or Baptist church down the street, or did they also have kids from families in churches like the Westboro Baptist Cult or the fundamentalist mormons who believe in polygamy and treating their women like nothing more than owned slaves, shunning and exiling their young men to eliminate the competition for the young women? The world in general considers all these kind of people to be "Christians".

 

[Rollo Tamasi]

It's a yahoo study.
What's more worldly than that?

 

[Christ_empowered]

also...Mental Health, Inc. has long had a problem with religion. The only time religion is OK w/ Mental Health, Inc. is when they approve of your faith and your faith doesn't question their assumptions. Most people in psychiatry and psychology are decidedly secular and worldly in outlook, so this sort of study isn't entirely surprising. If you get in the way back machine, you can find writing on religion (especially Christianity) as the source of various "neuroses" and such.