Are Religious People Really More Helpful? Public and Private Religiosity and Volunteering Participation

Little research has investigated different religious dimensions, for example, public and private religiosity, in contribution to participation in different voluntary services and specific secular volunteering domains, and whether these dimensions have different effects on voluntary services and volunteering domains. Furthermore, this research has tested whether public religiosity is a mediator and/or a suppressor of the effects of private religiosity on volunteering. Of a representative sample of general adults, the current study found that public and private dimensions of religiosity significantly predicted more participation in different voluntary services and specific secular volunteering domains and public religiosity had stronger effects than did private religiosity. Irrespective of the dimension, religiosity was more strongly related to some voluntary services and volunteering domains than to others. Importantly, the effects of private religiosity on secular volunteering are significantly mediated and suppressed by public religiosity, but the reverse is not true. Implications for volunteerism for nonprofit organizations are briefly discussed.