A popular notion in many religions is that less pious individuals are also less moral. We sought to test the self‐described moral values of religious and nonreligious individuals under the framework of Moral Foundations Theory. In Study 1, we found that atheists differ from Christians in some moral domains. We also found evidence that Christians’ self‐ratings are consistently lower than what they perceive to be the moral values of other Christians. This finding contradicts previous findings that suggest that Christians may inflate their positive characteristics relative to their peers in other domains. In Studies 2 and 3, we tested several alternative explanations for this finding. Preliminary evidence suggests that Christians rate their moral values lower in comparison to Christian exemplars such as religious leaders, and not from a sense of humility. In contrast, atheists may not have exemplars for such a comparison.

中文翻译：

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个人道德价值观和宗教群体价值观的不同看法

在许多宗教中，一个流行的观念是虔诚的个体也更少道德。我们试图在道德基础理论的框架下检验宗教和非宗教人士自我描述的道德价值观。在研究1中，我们发现无神论者在某些道德领域与基督徒不同。我们还发现有证据表明基督徒的自我评价始终低于他们认为是其他基督徒的道德价值观的东西。这一发现与先前的发现相矛盾，后者表明基督徒相对于其他领域的同伴可能会夸大他们的积极特征。在研究2和3中，我们测试了此发现的几种替代解释。初步证据表明，与诸如宗教领袖，而不是出于谦卑感。相反，无神论者可能没有这种比较的范例。