The aim of this work was to study the social representations of sin according to religious groups. To this end, we collected data through a questionnaire including questions relating to personal data of the individuals and their representations of what is sin. The research involved 223 high school students from the city of Rio de Janeiro, of both sexes, aged between 18 and 30 years, who defined themselves as Catholics, Evangelicals and with no religion. Data were analyzed using content analysis. The results point out that Catholics and Evangelicals accounted sin from the prescriptive character of morality, while no religion represented sin in the face of deviant/criminal character. The social representation of sin for the group of no religion, as deviation from religion/crime, points to the development of a secular ethics, ie, non-religious ethics which is able to stand up to the prescriptive. pressure of the most.
social representations; sin; religion; religious groups; social psychology
