Is the call to prayer a call to cooperate? A field experiment on the impact of religious salience on prosocial behavior

Religious salience can significantly increase prosocial behavior among Muslim individuals in natural settings, according to a field study conducted in the souks of Marrakesh's medina. The research found that shopkeepers exhibited greater cooperation and fairness in an economic decision-making task when exposed to the Islamic call to prayer compared to when it was absent. This challenges previous mixed findings on religion and prosocial behavior by demonstrating its impact in a real-world, culturally relevant context. The study employed a dictator game-like experiment, providing novel evidence that religious rituals may serve as powerful cues for fostering cooperation beyond self-reported measures.

Duhaime, E. P. (2015). Is the call to prayer a call to cooperate? A field experiment on the impact of religious salience on prosocial behavior. Judgment and Decision Making, 10(6), 593–596. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1930297500007038