Are religious people nicer? That is, are they more generous and honest?
Not necessarily. In experiments where we have measured generous behavior, belief in god or religiosity as a personality measure had no reliable effect. This finding is consistent with the scientific literature on religion and prosociality in social psychology. Religious individuals are not better behaving people in general. Only in situations that offer reputational gains that religious individuals become more generous or helpful than the non-religious. Religious situations are more important than religious dispositions in influencing social behavior.
