When fate meets its maker : bidirectional effects between beliefs in anthropomorphic God and fate

Past studies have shown that fate and belief in God are strongly associated. However, finer-grained investigations into this association have been lacking. The current research sought to highlight the key role anthropomorphic perceptions of God plays in this association, as well as demonstrate the b...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Yuen, Wei Lun
Other Authors: Lee Kai Chung, Albert
Format: Final Year Project (FYP)
Language:English
Published: 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/74131
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author Yuen, Wei Lun
author2 Lee Kai Chung, Albert
author_facet Lee Kai Chung, Albert
Yuen, Wei Lun
author_sort Yuen, Wei Lun
collection NTU
description Past studies have shown that fate and belief in God are strongly associated. However, finer-grained investigations into this association have been lacking. The current research sought to highlight the key role anthropomorphic perceptions of God plays in this association, as well as demonstrate the bidirectional causal effects between beliefs in an anthropomorphic God and fate. In Study 1, participants reminded of an anthropomorphic God were found to have stronger fate beliefs than participants primed with other non-anthropomorphic entities. Study 2 examined the reverse causal flow, and showed that experimentally inducing inclinations toward fate beliefs elicited strong religiosity among the participants. Additionally, Study 2 also shed light on specific anthropomorphic qualities that were essential for the causal effect of fate beliefs on religiosity. Specifically, while anthropomorphic perceptions of other entities’ mental world typically follow two dimensions, agency and experience, perceiving God to possess agency was crucial for fate beliefs to increase one’s belief in God. Taken together, findings across both studies illustrated the bidirectional causality between beliefs in fate and God, and showed that anthropomorphic perception of God was imperative to the aforementioned effects. Implications of the findings were also discussed.
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spelling ntu-10356/741312019-12-10T11:28:24Z When fate meets its maker : bidirectional effects between beliefs in anthropomorphic God and fate Yuen, Wei Lun Lee Kai Chung, Albert School of Humanities and Social Sciences DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology::Social psychology Past studies have shown that fate and belief in God are strongly associated. However, finer-grained investigations into this association have been lacking. The current research sought to highlight the key role anthropomorphic perceptions of God plays in this association, as well as demonstrate the bidirectional causal effects between beliefs in an anthropomorphic God and fate. In Study 1, participants reminded of an anthropomorphic God were found to have stronger fate beliefs than participants primed with other non-anthropomorphic entities. Study 2 examined the reverse causal flow, and showed that experimentally inducing inclinations toward fate beliefs elicited strong religiosity among the participants. Additionally, Study 2 also shed light on specific anthropomorphic qualities that were essential for the causal effect of fate beliefs on religiosity. Specifically, while anthropomorphic perceptions of other entities’ mental world typically follow two dimensions, agency and experience, perceiving God to possess agency was crucial for fate beliefs to increase one’s belief in God. Taken together, findings across both studies illustrated the bidirectional causality between beliefs in fate and God, and showed that anthropomorphic perception of God was imperative to the aforementioned effects. Implications of the findings were also discussed. Bachelor of Arts 2018-04-29T12:37:06Z 2018-04-29T12:37:06Z 2018 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/74131 en 45 p. application/pdf
spellingShingle DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology::Social psychology
Yuen, Wei Lun
When fate meets its maker : bidirectional effects between beliefs in anthropomorphic God and fate
title When fate meets its maker : bidirectional effects between beliefs in anthropomorphic God and fate
title_full When fate meets its maker : bidirectional effects between beliefs in anthropomorphic God and fate
title_fullStr When fate meets its maker : bidirectional effects between beliefs in anthropomorphic God and fate
title_full_unstemmed When fate meets its maker : bidirectional effects between beliefs in anthropomorphic God and fate
title_short When fate meets its maker : bidirectional effects between beliefs in anthropomorphic God and fate
title_sort when fate meets its maker bidirectional effects between beliefs in anthropomorphic god and fate
topic DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology::Social psychology
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/74131
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