An economic study involving 482 people that aimed to assess the value of thoughts and prayers to people who had experienced a hardship or natural disaster finds that whereas Christians value thoughts and prayers from other religious people, people who expressed atheist or agnostic beliefs were averse to thoughts and prayers from Christians and were even willing to pay to avoid prayers; the results suggest that the expression of thoughts and prayers may be differently valued according to recipients' beliefs.
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Article #19-08268: "The value of thoughts and prayers," by Linda Thunström and Shiri Noy.
MEDIA CONTACT: Linda Thunström, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY; e-mail: lthunstr@uwyo.edu
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences