THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION, GENDER AND LOCALITY ON ALTRUISM
ABSTRACT
This study investigated the- influence of Christian religious affiliation, gender and locality on altruism. Three hundred and twenty-one staff (Christians) from the randomly selected local government secretariats of Anambra State, Nigeria, voluntarily participated in the study. Three hypotheses were postulated and tested. The instrument for data collection was the self-report altruism scale adapted from Rushton, Chris-John and Fekken (1981), where Cronbach reliability alpha of 0.72 was obtained after the analysis of pilot study. Data analysis using 3 way ANOVA (F- test) indicated no significant influence of Christian religious affiliation on altruism, but there was significant influence of gender and locality on altruism, F(321=14.72, P <001; F,321=28.55, P<001). The findings revealed that while females were more altruistic than males, rural dwellers were more altruistic than their urban counterparts. The result also indicated no significant interaction of Christian religious affiliation, gender, and locality on altruism. Results were discussed and the implications of the findings as well as suggestions for future studies were presented.