Science on Religion Research News
What does science have to say about religion? A welcome to Joseph Allen
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- Published: 15 October 2015
- Written by Joseph Allen
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Religiosity goes back to the first cave paintings and stone figurines, and has been with us ever since. Evidence suggests that Homo sapiens exploded out of Africa about 50,000 years ago, accompanied by gods and demons. The perseverance of these deities is impressive. Despite the heaven-shaking ascent of secularism, many people continue to petition divine agents, engage in costly rituals, and carefully separate the sacred from the profane. This mystery can be approached from numerous directions. As the newest writer to join Science on Religion, each week I will take a testable hypothesis as my starting point. The goal is to bring perspectives on religion into sharper focus.
When a fearmonger speaks, people listen
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- Published: 07 October 2015
- Written by Joseph Allen
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The end of the world is nigh!” For millennia that spiel has attracted people to gloom and doom prophets. After all, what could be more attention-grabbing than a perpetual threat on the horizon? Less ambitious religious leaders limit their dire warnings to witches, curses, and demons, but the multitudes are still gripped by panic, regardless of the presence or absence of actual danger. Could it be that when our amygdalas squirt fear all over the place, we naturally trust the doomsayer? Pascal Boyer and Nora Parren think so. Their recent research suggests that, all things being equal, people are likely to judge someone relaying threat-related information as more competent than the bearer of boring news.
How to win friends through music and religion
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- Published: 28 September 2015
- Written by Joseph Allen
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It's your first semester. Campus is crawling with nameless strangers. Totally invisible, you scan the chattering chaos—in a lame attempt to seem undaunted, you gaze down at your smartphone and wonder, “Will anyone like me? Why should I like any of them? How would I even know a real friend if I found one?” According to a recent study, there are three personality traits most likely to bring you and your new pal together: shared taste in music, resonant religious beliefs, and similar ethical views. If a person shares all three traits, you may become best buds forever. If they share none of these, you might want to go back to your smartphone.
Atheists think like creationists
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- Published: 21 September 2015
- Written by Chris Halloran
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The question at the heart of the cognitive science of religion – or "CSR," for those in the know – is why people are religious. Answers usually come in one of two flavors. On the one hand, some say that religion is completely learned from people’s cultures. On the other hand, some say that biology plays an important role in religious behavior, or at least in people's openness to religious ways of thinking. People spend their entire careers exploring these options, but a group from Boston University thought, What if we looked at how atheists think? Could they help us decide between CSR’s two camps?
Religion “Cuddles Up” with Oxytocin and Increased Self-Control
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- Published: 18 August 2015
- Written by Chris Halloran
- Hits: 6381
In a recent post, I let you know about Joni Sasaki’s study that looked at people who have the versions of the dopamine receptor DRD4 that made them “susceptible” to antisocial behavior. After being primed with religion, the subjects became more prosocial. In her latest study, Sasaki has carried this research forward, looking at how religion affects people’s self-control in social situations, and how this tracks with the different alleles of both the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) and DRD4. The experiments showed that that people with OXTR alleles known to give them “susceptibility” to greater social sensitivity and empathy acted with more self-control after being primed with religion.
God’s forgiveness makes you okay with your peccadillos
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- Published: 04 August 2015
- Written by Chris Halloran
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The anterior cingulate cortex, or ACC, is tucked deep within the brain behind the frontal lobe, and its job is to make sure that reality matches one’s expectations. In a nutshell, the ACC detects your mistakes – which is very important for self-control. After all, if people don’t realize when something’s going wrong, they can’t control themselves and act however is best to achieve their goals, whether it be doing a puzzle, navigating a cocktail party, or diagnosing a disease. Here’s the tie to religion: people primed with religious ideas and who are more religious have more self-control. But not everyone agrees, and some are wondering, is this lack of consensus a result of different theological beliefs producing distinct effects on self-control?
Accepting mortality: How religious beliefs relieve death anxiety
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- Published: 24 July 2015
- Written by Chris Halloran
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One of Benjamin Franklin’s most memorable – and most true – lines is “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Besides everybody griping during the run up to April 15th, there’s not much to help people come to terms with paying taxes, but when it comes to death, there are tons of ways to help us cope. Historically, religion has been at the top of this list. Every religion has its underworld gods and figures, and these have bled into popular culture, such as the all the personifications of death and the brand new cable show Proof. Religion and helping people to deal with death go together. Religion works for many, but how does it work? What is it about religion that helps people cope with the anxiety caused by the knowledge that they will one day die?
With God as your shepherd, you take more risks
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- Published: 08 July 2015
- Written by Chris Halloran
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Religious people aren’t risk-takers. Study after study has shown that if someone’s reminded about God or if someone’s more intrinsically religious, then they’re less likely to take a risk. Coming across religious words makes people less likely to drink, do drugs, gamble, and even speed in their cars. Thousands have put this effect to great use in programs that include acknowledging a “Higher Power” as one of their twelve steps. However, the fact is that not all risks are the same. Should we think that religion will decrease all types of risk-taking equally? Maybe not.
The varieties of religious conversion
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- Published: 24 June 2015
- Written by Chris Halloran
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Conversion is a life changer. Converts can gain new social groups and family ties, different symbols and narratives that give life meaning, and new and better behaviors from the religion’s morals and, sometimes, from the way they feel emotionally because of the conversion. This is even true when it’s not a change from one religion or denomination to another but a change in degree of belief or commitment from little or none to firm and deeply held. It's no wonder that the psychology of religion has been fascinated with conversion from the start, and there are a slew of theories that claim to explain what goes on during a conversion. Most of these theories are built on qualitative studies, but can an empirical investigation support any of them?
Religion teaches self-control, and that’s what makes kids less likely to try drugs
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- Published: 17 June 2015
- Written by Chris Halloran
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Drug and alcohol abuse by teens causes a whole set of health, developmental, and social problems. What’s not clear is what makes some kids more or less likely to even try drugs in the first place, much less go on to regularly abuse them. And when researchers do identify risks or protective factors, how and why they make kids more or less likely to try drugs usually remains a mystery. For example, religion is a well-known protective factor, which means that religious adolescents are less likely to try drugs. From a public health standpoint, the how and why don’t really matter. But for the scientific study of religion, this is the most important question. So what is it about religion that makes kids less likely to try drugs as they grow up?
When being unfalsifiable is a good thing
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- Published: 09 June 2015
- Written by Chris Halloran
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Common knowledge says that you believe what you’re taught, or what your gut tells you is right, or – better yet – what the facts tell you is true. We say that we believe things because we have reasons to believe them, and common knowledge says that if the facts change, our beliefs will change, too. This idea is called falsifiability. The problem is that a lot of our beliefs are unfalsifiable, which means there's no way to test whether they’re right or wrong. And this can be a problem, particularly if it leads to extremism and dogmatism. So unfalsifiability is often seen as a bad thing. But could it actually be a good thing when unfalsifiable ideas unite a community or nation?
