Daily Spiritual Experiences and Prosocial Behavior

This paper examines how the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale (DSES) relates to range of prosocial behaviors, using a large,
nationally representative U.S. data set. It finds that daily spiritual experiences are a statistically and substantively significant
predictor of volunteering, charitable giving, and helping individuals one knows personally. Daily spiritual experiences better
predict helping to distant others than to friends and family, indicating that they may motivate helping by fostering an extensive
definition of one’s moral community. The relationship between the DSES and helping is not moderated by sympathy and is robust
to the inclusion of most religiosity measures. However, the relationship becomes non-significant for most helping behaviors
when measures of meditation, prayer, and mindfulness are included in a regression equation. The DSES is particularly effective
in predicting helping behaviors among people who do not belong to a religious congregation, indicating that it may measure
spiritual motivations for helping among people who are not conventionally religious.