People of faith are not more generous than non-religious people — except in one case, a new study found.

A study by researchers at Linköping University in Sweden found that religious people are more generous than non-religious people when they know the recipients’ religious beliefs — otherwise there is no difference.

The research includes three studies of Christians, Muslims and atheists in different countries, including Sweden, the United States and a combined study in Egypt and Lebanon. About 1,700 people were included in the study published in September by Cambridge University Press.

The results are slightly surprising as some recent studies have shown that people with religious beliefs are more likely to be generous than non-religious people.

In 2016, a Pew Research Center study of U.S. adults found that highly religious Americans are more likely to donate time, money or goods to help the poor, and in 2021, a YouGov poll of adults in the United Kingdom revealed that religious people are more likely to be charitable than those that are non-practicing or irreligious.

How the study worked

Study participants were asked to distribute fake money among themselves and three hypothetical recipients over six rounds, researchers said.

In each round, moderators revealed something about the recipients, including one round where participants were told about the recipients’ religious beliefs.

Most of the time, people gave the same amount of money, excluding the round that religious information was revealed, when participants of religious background became more generous than their non-religious counterparts, researchers said.

“This was shown mainly by them giving more money to those of the same faith as themselves,” researchers said in a Dec. 11 news release.

Religious group differences

Researchers also noted that Muslims in the U.S. tended to give more to recipients of the same religious beliefs than Christians and atheists did.

Although there were not enough Muslim participants in Sweden to make the comparison, experts said there were signs that results were similar.

In Lebanon and Egypt, there was no difference in giving between Christians and Muslims, according to the research.

The study did not include people of other religious/non-religious groups outside of Christianity, Islam and atheism.

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