How do beliefs affect a way a person behaves?

The choices that people make in life, are usually dependant on the psychological (belief) conditioning they are exposed to, from the moment of foetal conception, to the point of completion of their social/cultural programming. Children develop their beliefs, values and social culture from the environment within which they are raised. Your emotional intelligence is shaped by the quality of care and attention you receive from a baby to approximately ten years of age. This social/cultural programming becomes your belief matrix it is similar to the programming of a computer's processor with data that is considered to be factual. The computer then compares all incoming data against its programmed intelligence or belief, in order to generate a conclusion. Similarly the human intellect processes incoming data based on the morals/values/beliefs they have been conditioned with. Some of these morals/values are inherited from genetic sources and the others are learnt from the environment to which the absorptive mind is exposed. If you were born to a family that practiced a particular brand of religion then you have been psychologically programmed by that cultural belief system. There are very few individuals who can honestly separate themselves from their formative psychological conditioning. The set of beliefs with which individuals were nurtured will govern the choices they make in life.