How Does Religion Affect Giving to Outgroups and Secular Organizations? A Systematic Literature Review
Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Indiana University—Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Religions 2020, 11(8), 405; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11080405
Received: 20 June 2020
/
Revised: 22 July 2020
/
Accepted: 30 July 2020
/
Published: 6 August 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Global Understandings of Religiosity and Generosity)
Although religious giving represents the largest sector of charitable giving in the US, its overall impact on social welfare has been questioned, pointing to the possibility that the majority of funding might stay within the religious community, with little benefit to outgroups or secular charity. Despite multiple studies showing a positive relationship between religion and secular and outgroup giving, some empirical findings show a negative or non-significant relationship. By employing a systematic literature review, the current study explores theories and empirical evidence to provide an integrative framework that identifies the mechanisms and directions through which religion affects giving to outgroups and secular organizations. The study also compares the major five religious traditions and giving to outgroups and secular organizations. The study finds that religious teachings, norms, values, social network, and private rituals, determine the direction of the relationship between religion and giving to outgroups and secular organizations. The study concludes that, despite the dominant positive relationship between religion and giving to outgroup and secular organizations, there remains heterogeneity among the studies based on their location, operationalization of religion and secular giving, and methodology used. The study also poses some implication questions and points out future research directions.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
religion; outgroup; secular giving; external giving; identity; value; norms; social network; private rituals; affiliation; attendance
▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Yasin, K.I.; Adams, A.G.; King, D.P. How Does Religion Affect Giving to Outgroups and Secular Organizations? A Systematic Literature Review. Religions 2020, 11, 405. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11080405
AMA Style
Yasin KI, Adams AG, King DP. How Does Religion Affect Giving to Outgroups and Secular Organizations? A Systematic Literature Review. Religions. 2020; 11(8):405. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11080405
Chicago/Turabian StyleYasin, Kidist I., Anita G. Adams, and David P. King. 2020. "How Does Religion Affect Giving to Outgroups and Secular Organizations? A Systematic Literature Review" Religions 11, no. 8: 405. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11080405
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
