Cross-cultural support for a link between analytic thinking and disbelief in god: Evidence from India and the United Kingdom
© 2019, Society for Judgment and Decision making. All rights reserved. A substantial body of evidence suggests that favoring reason over intuition (employing an analytic cognitive style) is associated with reduced belief in God. In the current work, we address outstanding issues in this literature w...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/135506 |
| _version_ | 1811072519720927232 |
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| author | Stagnaro, MN Ross, RM Pennycook, G Rand, DG |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Stagnaro, MN Ross, RM Pennycook, G Rand, DG |
| author_sort | Stagnaro, MN |
| collection | MIT |
| description | © 2019, Society for Judgment and Decision making. All rights reserved. A substantial body of evidence suggests that favoring reason over intuition (employing an analytic cognitive style) is associated with reduced belief in God. In the current work, we address outstanding issues in this literature with two studies examining the relationship between analytic cognitive style (as measured by performance on the Cognitive Reflection Test) and belief in God. First, prior research focused on Judeo-Christian cultures, and it is uncertain whether the results generalize to other religious systems or beliefs. Study 1 helps to address this question by documenting a negative correlation between CRT performance and belief in God, r = −.18, in a sample of 513 participants from India, a majority Hindu country. Second, among 150 participants from the United Kingdom, Gervais et al. (2018) reported the first and (to date) only evidence for a positive relationship between CRT and belief in God. In Study 2, we assess the robustness of this result by recruiting 547 participants from the United Kingdom. Unlike Gervais et al., using the same items, we find a negative correlation between CRT and belief in God (r = −.19). Our results add further support to the argument that analytic thinking undermines belief in God. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:07:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/135506 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:07:11Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1355062023-02-22T20:54:03Z Cross-cultural support for a link between analytic thinking and disbelief in god: Evidence from India and the United Kingdom Stagnaro, MN Ross, RM Pennycook, G Rand, DG Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences © 2019, Society for Judgment and Decision making. All rights reserved. A substantial body of evidence suggests that favoring reason over intuition (employing an analytic cognitive style) is associated with reduced belief in God. In the current work, we address outstanding issues in this literature with two studies examining the relationship between analytic cognitive style (as measured by performance on the Cognitive Reflection Test) and belief in God. First, prior research focused on Judeo-Christian cultures, and it is uncertain whether the results generalize to other religious systems or beliefs. Study 1 helps to address this question by documenting a negative correlation between CRT performance and belief in God, r = −.18, in a sample of 513 participants from India, a majority Hindu country. Second, among 150 participants from the United Kingdom, Gervais et al. (2018) reported the first and (to date) only evidence for a positive relationship between CRT and belief in God. In Study 2, we assess the robustness of this result by recruiting 547 participants from the United Kingdom. Unlike Gervais et al., using the same items, we find a negative correlation between CRT and belief in God (r = −.19). Our results add further support to the argument that analytic thinking undermines belief in God. 2021-10-27T20:23:45Z 2021-10-27T20:23:45Z 2019-03-01 2021-04-12T18:22:30Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/135506 en Judgment and Decision Making Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 unported license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ application/pdf Judgment and Decision Making |
| spellingShingle | Stagnaro, MN Ross, RM Pennycook, G Rand, DG Cross-cultural support for a link between analytic thinking and disbelief in god: Evidence from India and the United Kingdom |
| title | Cross-cultural support for a link between analytic thinking and disbelief in god: Evidence from India and the United Kingdom |
| title_full | Cross-cultural support for a link between analytic thinking and disbelief in god: Evidence from India and the United Kingdom |
| title_fullStr | Cross-cultural support for a link between analytic thinking and disbelief in god: Evidence from India and the United Kingdom |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cross-cultural support for a link between analytic thinking and disbelief in god: Evidence from India and the United Kingdom |
| title_short | Cross-cultural support for a link between analytic thinking and disbelief in god: Evidence from India and the United Kingdom |
| title_sort | cross cultural support for a link between analytic thinking and disbelief in god evidence from india and the united kingdom |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/135506 |
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