What we think prayers do: Americans' expectations and valuation of intercessory prayer

Praying for others in the wake of a disasters is a common interpersonal and public response to tragedy in the United States. But these gestures are controversial. In a survey experiment, we elicit how people value receiving a prayer from a Christian stranger in support of a recent hardship and exami...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2022-03, Vol.17 (3), p.e0265836-e0265836
Main Authors: Thunström, Linda, Noy, Shiri
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biology and Life Sciences
Christianity
Christians
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Evaluation
God
Hardship
Health risks
Humans
Medicine and Health Sciences
Motivation
Pandemics
Personal health
Prayer
Prayers
Religion
Religious aspects
Research and Analysis Methods
Social Sciences
Surveys and Questionnaires
United States
Valuation
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Summary:Praying for others in the wake of a disasters is a common interpersonal and public response to tragedy in the United States. But these gestures are controversial. In a survey experiment, we elicit how people value receiving a prayer from a Christian stranger in support of a recent hardship and examine factors that affect the value of the prayer. We find that people who positively value receiving the prayer do so primarily because they believe it provides emotional support and will be answered by God. Many also value the prayer because they believe it will improve their health and wealth, although empirical support of such effects is lacking. People who negatively value receiving the prayer do so primarily because they believe praying is a waste of time. The negative value is particularly large if people are offended by religion. Finally, the hardship experienced by the prayer recipient matters to the intensity by which recipients like or dislike the gesture, suggesting the benefit of prayers varies not only across people, but also across contexts.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0265836