Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36901 
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dc.contributor.authorFrijters, Paulen
dc.contributor.authorBarón, Juan D.en
dc.date.accessioned2010-05-04-
dc.date.accessioned2010-07-23T09:35:01Z-
dc.date.available2010-07-23T09:35:01Z-
dc.date.issued2010-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10419/36901-
dc.description.abstractSacrifices to deities occur in nearly all known religions. In this paper, we report on our attempts to elicit this type of religious behaviour towards Theoi in the laboratory. The theory we test is that, when faced with uncertainty, individuals attempt to engage in a reciprocal contract with the source of uncertainty by sacrificing towards it. In our experiments, we create the situation whereby individuals face an uncertain economic payback due to Theoi and we allow participants to sacrifice towards this entity. Aggregate sacrifices amongst participants are over 30% of all takings, increase with the level of humanistic labelling of Theoi and decrease when participants share information or when the level of uncertainty is lower. The findings imply that under circumstances of high uncertainty people are willing to sacrifice large portions of their income even when this has no discernable effect on outcomes.en
dc.language.isoengen
dc.publisher|aInstitute for the Study of Labor (IZA) |cBonnen
dc.relation.ispartofseries|aIZA Discussion Papers |x4902en
dc.subject.jelD8en
dc.subject.jelZ12en
dc.subject.ddc330en
dc.subject.keywordUncertaintyen
dc.subject.keywordreligionen
dc.subject.keywordsacrificeen
dc.subject.keywordexperimenten
dc.subject.stwReligionen
dc.subject.stwSpendeen
dc.subject.stwRisikoen
dc.subject.stwVerhaltensökonomiken
dc.subject.stwTesten
dc.titleThe cult of Theoi: Economic uncertainty and religion-
dc.type|aWorking Paperen
dc.identifier.ppn625195566en
dc.rightshttp://www.econstor.eu/dspace/Nutzungsbedingungenen

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