In a classical experiment known as the “Good Samaritan Study,” researchers monitored who would stop to help an injured person lying in an alley. They found that religiosity played no role in helping behavior, even when participants were on their way to deliver a talk on the parable of the good Samaritan.
Whatever your sources are for this
Astargath they are not giving you accurate information.
The Good Samaritan study had nothing to do with comparing atheists and religious. It was a study on the behavior of religious seminary students.
The Good Samaritan Experiement: Darley & Batson (1973)http://socialpsychologyatpratt.blogspot.com/2011/10/good-samaritan-experiement-darley.html?m=1In their classic social psychology study the experimenters recruited 67 students from the Princeton Theological Seminary and told them it was a study about religious education and vocations.
Results
On average just 40% of the seminary students offered help (with a few stepping over the apparently injured man) but crucially the amount of hurry they were in had a large influence on behaviour. Here is the percentage of participants who offered help by condition:
Low hurry: 63%
Medium hurry: 45%
High hurry: 10%
The type of talk they were giving also had an effect on whether they offered help. Of those asked to talk about careers for seminarians, just 29% offered help, while of those asked to talk about the parable of the Good Samaritan, fully 53% gave assistance."
What the Good Samaritan Experiement really tells us is that seminary students don't always do the right thing especially when they are in a hurry.
It also tells us that when their religion is fresh in their mind rather then mundane concerns they are more likely to do the right thing.
It is no surprise that humans even seminary students often fail. We already know that two thirds of the highly educated will administer a lethal electrical shock to an innocent if an authority figure pushes them to it. See:
The Milgram Experiment: Are We Evil?http://www.mysticfiles.com/the-milgram-experiment-are-we-evil/What is much more important in my opinion is the dramatic increase in the amount of students who stopped to help when their thoughts were not on a lecture about jobs and money but instead on a lecture about their religious principles.
Religion, Altruism, and Helping Strangers: A Multilevel Analysis of 126 Countrieshttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/319234810_Religion_Altruism_and_Helping_Strangers_A_Multilevel_Analysis_of_126_CountriesThis article tests how religion relates to helping strangers, an important but rarely studied measure of social solidarity and informal social capital... It finds that religious people, members of minority religions, and people in religiously diverse countries were more likely to help a stranger. Individuals living in devout countries were more likely to help strangers even if they themselves were not religious. The results suggest that religion plays a particularly important role in promoting the prosocial norms and values that motivate helping strangers.
