Mean Religious Kids?

The headlines are shocking, to say the least. “Religious children are meaner than their secular counterparts, study finds,” The Guardian intones, adding, “Religious belief appears to have negative influence on children’s altruism and judgments of others’ actions even as parents see them as ‘more empathetic.’”

The Daily Beast is even harsher, with this headline: “Study: Religious Kids Are Jerks.” The aforementioned study comes from a four-and-a-half-page research note in the journal Current Biology by University of Chicago professor Jean Decety and six others scholars. There’s only one problem with the research—well, okay, there’s actually more than one problem!