"The finding surfaced from a comprehensive analysis of 26 years of data involving 143,197 people in 67 countries."
"The key finding is that, controlling for each other, a nation's rate of
belief in hell predicts lower crime rates, but the nation's rate of
belief in heaven predicts higher crime rates, and these are strong
effects," said Azim F. Shariff, professor of psychology and director of
the Culture and Morality Lab at the UO. "I think it's an important clue
about the differential effects of supernatural punishment and
supernatural benevolence. The finding is consistent with controlled
research we've done in the lab, but here shows a powerful 'real world'
effect on something that really affects people -- crime."
Here
belief in hell = lower crime rates
belief in heaven = higher crime rates
I'm skeptical whether it's really that simple...
I'ld have to look at the study closer but prima facie the generalization of communal belief and crime rate is just...so...problematic... let alone the lingual, cultural and political nuances of 67 different countries over 26 years...
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