The City Economic Seminar organized by EUSP, HSE, and POMI continues its work online. On December 3 at 6 PM (Moscow time), Loukas Balafoutas from the University of Innsbruck will be talking about the results of an economic experiment conducted in the mosques of Afghanistan.
Abstract: While a body of existing empirical work has examined the effects of religious primes on social and economic behavior, there is very little evidence on the effects of actual participation in religious rituals. We assess in an economic experiment the potential of religious messages to shape individual behavior. We work together with Imams in Afghanistan who deliver two different sermons: one on life after death, and one of neutral content. Our sample consists of practicing Muslims who were exposed to one of the two sermons after prayers and then participated in an economic experiment in mosques. The experiment consisted of a religious donation task, a charity donation task, and a time preference elicitation task. We find that the sermon on life after death leads to significantly stronger pro-sociality measured in terms of the amounts donated, as well as to decisions consistent with lower patience. We discuss possible extensions in the lab and in the field.
The seminar will be held via Zoom application. To receive access, please send a request to spb.economic.seminar@gmail.com (please indicate your full name and occupation/place of study). Also, indicate your full name when entering Zoom. The number of participants is limited (100 people), join the seminar in 3–5 minutes.