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Why Do You Believe in God? Relationships between Religious Belief, Analytic Thinking, Mentalizing and Moral Concern

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  • Anthony Ian Jack
  • Jared Parker Friedman
  • Richard Eleftherios Boyatzis
  • Scott Nolan Taylor

Abstract

Prior work has established that analytic thinking is associated with disbelief in God, whereas religious and spiritual beliefs have been positively linked to social and emotional cognition. However, social and emotional cognition can be subdivided into a number of distinct dimensions, and some work suggests that analytic thinking is in tension with some aspects of social-emotional cognition. This leaves open two questions. First, is belief linked to social and emotional cognition in general, or a specific dimension in particular? Second, does the negative relationship between belief and analytic thinking still hold after relationships with social and emotional cognition are taken into account? We report eight hypothesis-driven studies which examine these questions. These studies are guided by a theoretical model which focuses on the distinct social and emotional processing deficits associated with autism spectrum disorders (mentalizing) and psychopathy (moral concern). To our knowledge no other study has investigated both of these dimensions of social and emotion cognition alongside analytic thinking. We find that religious belief is robustly positively associated with moral concern (4 measures), and that at least part of the negative association between belief and analytic thinking (2 measures) can be explained by a negative correlation between moral concern and analytic thinking. Using nine different measures of mentalizing, we found no evidence of a relationship between mentalizing and religious or spiritual belief. These findings challenge the theoretical view that religious and spiritual beliefs are linked to the perception of agency, and suggest that gender differences in religious belief can be explained by differences in moral concern. These findings are consistent with the opposing domains hypothesis, according to which brain areas associated with moral concern and analytic thinking are in tension.

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony Ian Jack & Jared Parker Friedman & Richard Eleftherios Boyatzis & Scott Nolan Taylor, 2016. "Why Do You Believe in God? Relationships between Religious Belief, Analytic Thinking, Mentalizing and Moral Concern," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-21, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0149989
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0149989
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ara Norenzayan & Will M Gervais & Kali H Trzesniewski, 2012. "Mentalizing Deficits Constrain Belief in a Personal God," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(5), pages 1-8, May.
    2. Shane Frederick, 2005. "Cognitive Reflection and Decision Making," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(4), pages 25-42, Fall.
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    1. David L R Maij & Frenk van Harreveld & Will Gervais & Yann Schrag & Christine Mohr & Michiel van Elk, 2017. "Mentalizing skills do not differentiate believers from non-believers, but credibility enhancing displays do," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(8), pages 1-31, August.
    2. Cinzia Di Dio & Sara Isernia & Chiara Ceolaro & Antonella Marchetti & Davide Massaro, 2018. "Growing Up Thinking of God’s Beliefs: Theory of Mind and Ontological Knowledge," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(4), pages 21582440188, October.
    3. Mustafa Emre ÇAĞLAR, 2020. "Why does intellectuality weaken faith and sometimes foster it?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-17, December.
    4. Michaela Hiebler-Ragger & Johanna Falthansl-Scheinecker & Gerhard Birnhuber & Andreas Fink & Human Friedrich Unterrainer, 2016. "Facets of Spirituality Diminish the Positive Relationship between Insecure Attachment and Mood Pathology in Young Adults," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(6), pages 1-9, June.

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