PSYCHOLOGY OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF NON-RELIGIOUS PEOPLE
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This article aims to analyze the psychological factors and empirical reasoning that drive the social responsibility of non-religious people without reliance on faith-based conditions. It explains that morality and prosocial behavior are not solely dependent on religion, but can also emerge from psychological processes, philosophical reasoning, and contemporary social values. This study employed documentary analysis, drawing upon concepts from social psychology, moral philosophy, and social theory to explain the mechanisms through which individuals who are not affiliated with any religion can significantly develop social responsibility.
The analysis revealed that the psychology of social responsibility consists of three key components: (1) cognitive awareness of the effects of one’s actions on society, (2) emotional motivation, such as empathy and compassion, and (3) behavioral decision-making that leads to actions for the common good. These mechanisms can be developed through social learning, social norms, and individuals’ intrinsic motivation. In addition, family, schools, communities, and social media play important roles in shaping values related to social responsibility. For non-religious people, systems of values and ethics are often constructed through reason, life experience, and shared human awareness rather than adherence to religious doctrines. Their moral decision-making is generally grounded in reason, empathy, and the consequences of actions for the collective good. Moreover, they tend to regard human rights, equality, and sustainability as important criteria for social responsibility. Therefore, being non-religious does not imply a lack of ethics; rather, it represents another form of meaning-making and value formation that supports contemporary society.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
พระครูพิศาลจริยากร เลขธมฺโม (สังข์ขาว) และสุชน ประวัติดี. (2562). จริยธรรม: ปัญหาพฤติกรรมและการจัดการในปัจจุบันของสังคมไทย. วารสาร มจร มนุษยศาสตร์ปริทรรศน์, 5(2), 131–145.
พระใบฎีกากิตติพงษ์ สีลสุทฺโธ และรัชชานนท์ ศุภพงศ์พิเชฐ. (2558). จิตวิทยาสังคมกับการปรับพฤติกรรมการรับรู้ของบุคคลในการดำรงชีวิต. วารสาร มจร มนุษยศาสตร์ปริทรรศน์, 1(2), 11-21.
พระพลากร สุมงฺคโล (อนุพันธ์). (2559). ความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างกฎหมายกับศีลธรรม จริยธรรม ศาสนา และจารีตประเพณี. วารสารธรรมทรรศน์, 16(3), 277–289.
สุรพศ ทวีศักดิ์. (2561). รัฐกับศาสนา: ศีลธรรม อำนาจ และอิสรภาพ. กรุงเทพมหานคร : สยามปริทัศน์.
สุรพศ ทวีศักดิ์. (2561). จิตวิญญาณแบบโลกวิสัย. เรียกใช้เมื่อ 25 พฤศจิกายน 2568 จาก https://prachatai.com/journal/2018/03/76137.
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall.
Batson, C. D. (1991). The altruism question: Toward a social-psychological answer. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Boulianne, S. (2015). Social media use and participation: A meta-analysis of current research. Information, Communication & Society, 18(5), 524–538. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1008542
Carlo, G., & Randall, B. A. (2002). The development of a measure of prosocial behaviors for late adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 31(1), 31–44. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014033032440
Carroll, A. B. (1991). The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral management of organizational stakeholders. Business Horizons, 34(4), 39–48.
Cialdini, R. B., & Trost, M. R. (1998). Social influence: Social norms, conformity, and compliance. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (4th ed., pp. 151–192). McGraw-Hill.
Eisenberg, N., & Fabes, R. A. (1998). Prosocial development. In W. Damon & N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology, 3 (5), 701–778).
Grusec, J. E., & Hastings, P. D. (Eds.). (2007). Handbook of socialization: Theory and research. Guilford Press.
Harari, Y. N. (2016). Homo Deus: A brief history of tomorrow. HarperCollins.
Hobbes, T. (1996). Leviathan. Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1651)
Inglehart, R., & Norris, P. (2004). Sacred and secular: Religion and politics worldwide. Cambridge University Press.
Inglehart, R., & Welzel, C. (2005). Modernization, cultural change, and democracy: The human development sequence. Cambridge University Press.
Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (2009). An educational psychology success story: Social interdependence theory and cooperative learning. Educational Researcher, 38(5), 365–379. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X09339057.
Kant, I. (1997). Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals (M. Gregor, Trans.). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1785)
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346
Mill, J. S. (2001). Utilitarianism. Hackett Publishing Company. (Original work published 1861).
Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Harvard University Press.
Rogers, C. R. (1961). On becoming a person: A therapist's view of psychotherapy. Houghton Mifflin.
Rousseau, J.-J. (1997). The social contract and other later political writings (V. Gourevitch, Ed.). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1762)
Schwartz, S. H. (1977). Normative influences on altruism. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 10, pp. 221–279). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60358-5.
Skitka, L. J., Bauman, C. W., & Sargis, E. G. (2005). Moral conviction: Another contributor to attitude strength or something more. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(6), 895–917. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.88.6.895.
United Nations. (1948). Universal declaration of human rights. Retrieved February 5, 2026, from https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-humanrights.
Zuckerman, P. (2010). Society without God: What the least religious nations can tell us about contentment. New York University Press.
