A new study examines the link between religion, compassion and generosity.

Essentially, the study’s findings report that people without strong religious beliefs are compelled by their emotions and the connection they feel with another person to be generous. But for religious people, their acts of generosity have less to do with emotion and more to do with moral obligation.

“In three experiments, social scientists found that compassion consistently drove less religious people to be more generous. For highly religious people, however, compassion was largely unrelated to how generous they were…”

Clearly, compassion motivates people differently. What about you? What motivates you to be generous with your time, treasure or talent? Are you motivated by compassion to show generosity to others or do you consistently look for opportunities to live generously?

Read the article here and let us know your thoughts!