You report that a study in Current Biology finds that children from religious families are less altruistic than those not from a faith background (“Heads reject claims that religious children are more selfish”, News from Britain and Ireland, 14 November). The theory of Collective Consciousness may help to explain this. If altruism, morality, courage and so on can be considered as strengths which apply not only to the individual but also to the social group, then a “weakening” in the individual may be because they are contributing to the “strength” of the group. Normally, we say strong individuals make up a strong community, but there may be another process at work, whereby the individual sacrifices a portion of their “strength” for the benef