LOS ANGELES — Scientists have concluded that one of the reasons some people are less religious than others is that they think more analytically, rather than going with their gut. And thinking analytically can cause religious belief to wane — for skeptics and true believers alike.
The study, published in Friday’s edition of the journal Science, indicates that belief may be a more malleable feature of the human psyche than those of strong faith may think.
The cognitive origins of belief — and disbelief — traditionally haven’t been explored with academic rigor, said lead author Will Gervais, a social psychologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
“There’s been a long-standing intellectual tradition of treating science as one thing and religion as separate, and never the twain shall meet,” he said. But in recent years, there has been a push “to understand religion and why our species has the capacity for religion.”
According to one theory of human thinking, the brain processes information using two systems. The first relies on mental shortcuts by using intuitive responses — a gut instinct, if you will — to quickly arrive at a conclusion. The other employs deliberative analysis, which uses reason to arrive at a conclusion.
Both systems are useful, and they can run in parallel, the theory goes. But when called upon, analytic thinking can override intuition.
Studies suggest that religious beliefs are rooted in this intuitive processing, Gervais said. So, he wondered, would thinking analytically undermine religious belief as it overrides intuitive thought?
To find out, his research team had college students perform three thinking tasks, each with an intuitive (incorrect) answer and an analytic (correct) answer.
For example, students were asked this question: “A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?” The intuitive answer — 10 cents — would be wrong. A little math on the fly reveals that the correct answer would be 5 cents.
After answering three of these questions, the students were asked to rate a series of statements on belief, including, “In my life I feel the presence of the Divine,” and “I just don’t understand religion.” Students who answered the three questions correctly — and presumably did a better job of engaging their analytical skills — were more likely to score lower on the belief scales.
To tease out whether analytic thinking was actually causing belief to decrease, the researchers performed a series of additional experiments.
First, students were randomly assigned to look at images of Auguste Rodin’s sculpture “The Thinker,” or of the ancient Greek statue of a discus thrower, “Discobolus.” Those who viewed “The Thinker” were prompted to think more analytically and expressed less belief in God — they scored an average of 41.42 on a 100-point scale, compared with an average of 61.55 for the group that viewed the discus thrower, according to the study.
Two additional experiments used word games rather than images. In one case, participants were asked to arrange a series of words into a sentence. Some were given neutral words and others were presented with trigger words such as “think,” “reason” and “analyze” to prime them to think more analytically. And indeed, those who got the “thinking” words expressed less religiosity on a 10-to-70 scale: They ranked themselves at 34.39, on average, while those in the control group averaged 40.16.
In the final experiment, students in the control group read text in a clear, legible typeface, while those in the other group were forced to squint at a typeface that was hard to read, a chore that has been shown to trigger analytic thinking. Those who read the less legible typefacet rated their belief in supernatural agents at 10.40 on a 3-to-21 scale, compared with 12.16 for those who read the clear typeface.
So does this mean that religious faith can be undermined with just a little extra mental effort? Not really, said Nicholas Epley, a social psychologist at the University of Chicago who was not involved in the study. But it does show that belief isn’t set in stone, but can respond to a person’s context.
“There’s an illusion that our brains are more static than they actually are,” he said. “We have fundamental beliefs and values that we hold, and those things seem sticky, constant. But it’s easier to get movement on something fundamental.”
(c)2012 the Los Angeles Times
I think, therefore I doubt?
Could be. And doubting, at least questioning is OK and can lead to strengthening both one’s faith and scientific acceptance.
Mixed reviews and conclusions, which are seemingly generalizations of some black and white, possibly remote experiments. The last two paragraphs don’t really jive with each other other intermedaite conclusions. Faith and science in their entirety aren’t necessarily either/or,black and white, at least for individuals. It’s quite possible to apply a lifetime of analytical thought to the relgious myths (and I’m not being pejorative) and not lose one’s faith overall.
It’s become obvious that if one is not permitted to question, analytically, ones faith (or one’s science for that matter), that resulting demand for and requirement of certainty will lead to a concrete and possibly falacious position.
If analytical thinking leads you away from God, then you are not thinking analytically. The evidence for the existence of God is overwhelming. However, the vast majority of that evidence is contained within the teaching and world experience of the Catholic Church. We know how much respect the Catholic Church gets these days, and how absolutely few people are willing to study its eternal truths.
In 2007, I had a painful, 25 year old injury instantly, miraculously healed at a Catholic healing service. I have personally seen and known of many other Catholic healing miracles, ranging from low-grade nagging pain being taken away, to otherwise terminal diseases being instantly healed. Healings like this are described in the Bible, and they have occurred millions of times in the 2000 year history of the Catholic Church.
You can also do a search for miracles of the Eucharist, and incorrupt saints. Those things are indisputable evidence of God in our midst, and a number of them have been verified by scientists. They should be trumpted as headline news at all times, yet you never hear a whisper about them. Also, St. Thomas Aquinas developed proofs for the existence of God through the result of logical thinking, but you never hear about his arguments. The suppression of the Catholic Church in the modern world is tremendous, yet people are stifling the very institution which would lead them to eternal happiness.
In the Bible, Jesus Christ said he would not condemn those who merely didn’t believe in what he had to say. But he did condemn the Pharisees, and he condemned entire towns for refusing to believe in his words after they had seen his miracles. We need to open our eyes, hearts, and minds to see what God is saying to us.