Heaven help us? Crime rates higher in countries that believe in 'supernatural benevolence'

This is an interesting article from The Globe and Mail (Toronto).

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/heaven-help-us-crime-rates-higher-in-countries-that-believe-in-supernatural-benevolence/article4368446/

As the researchers themselves indicate, they are not sure what their findings mean. I, also, found it difficult to understand their conclusions for, I would think, there is a high correlation between a belief in a heaven and a belief in a hell. Bottom line, I would think if one believe in one, he/she also believes in the other. As such, I am not sure what the study was actually measuring. Was it a question of which of these two is the bigger motivator or which of these two are on a person's mind as to why they practice their faith? They both, though, are different questions.

I, though, found the study interesting in that it makes one think about base motivations for doing good. Are you motivated by some supernatural perception of the act -- including a future reward -- or by the inherent goodness of the act itself as naturally understood? It would seem that a focus on the supernatural has its limitations.

I then wonder if this may offer a new insight into the gemara's statement that the churban was not caused by a lack in halachic precision but by a lack in the demands of lifnim meshurat hadin?

Rabbi Ben Hecht