Dr. David DeSteno

And so people do.

Where does religion fit in this?

Well, there's wonderful work.

This is by Demetrius Psycholatus, who's a professor at UConn, where he has people in different cultures do a similar thing.

And he has them play a game where they can cheat somebody else out of money.

And they either do it in a restaurant kitchen or in a temple.

The rate of cheating drops dramatically if you're doing it in the temple.

Why?

Because suddenly you're reminded, oh my goodness,

God cares about this, and there's going to be a price for me to pay if I do this.

And so that's top down.

But it also works from the bottom up.

We know that the brain's computations of what we value is often done below our conscious awareness.

It is influenced by lots of things, including feeling states.

So one thing we study in my lab is gratitude.

bring people into the lab.

We have all different ways of making them feel grateful, but the easiest way is count your blessings.

Take five minutes and count your blessings.

We then give them tasks where they can cheat in this way.

Those who have counted their blessings, cheating is almost non-existent.