12 Nov Study Finds Religious Belief Mostly Likely Rooted in Culture Rather Than Intuition
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Farias
Dr. Miguel Farias, DPhil
Reader in Cognitive and Biological Psychology
Coventry University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Over the past 20 years, cognitive psychologists have suggested that believing in the supernatural is something that comes to us ‘naturally’ or intuitively. Previous studies have suggested people who hold strong religious beliefs are more intuitive and less analytical, and when they think more analytically their religious beliefs decrease.
Our new research has challenged this. We used various experimental methods, including field research in the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela and neural stimulation. , by academics from Coventry University’s Centre for Advances in Behavioural Science and neuroscientists and philosophers at Oxford University, suggests that is not the case, and that people are not ‘born believers’.
The study — which included tests on pilgrims taking part in the famous Camino de Santiago and a brain stimulation experiment — found no link between intuitive/analytical thinking, or cognitive inhibition (an ability to suppress unwanted thoughts and actions), and supernatural beliefs.
The team started by carrying out an investigation on one of the largest pilgrimage routes in the world — the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, in northern Spain.
They asked pilgrims about the strength of their beliefs and the length of time spent on the pilgrimage and assessed their levels of intuitive thinking with a probability task, where participants had to decide between a logical and a ‘gut feeling’ choice.
The results suggested no link between strength of supernatural belief and intuition.
In a second study, where they used mathematical puzzles to increase intuition, they also found no link between levels of intuitive thinking and supernatural belief.
In the last part of their research they used brain stimulation to increase levels of cognitive inhibition, which is thought to regulate analytical thinking.
This involved running a painless electrical current between two electrodes placed on the participant’s scalp, to activate the right inferior frontal gyrus, a part of the brain that controls inhibitory control.
A previous brain-imaging study had shown that atheists used this area of the brain more when they wanted to suppress supernatural ideas.
The results showed that while this brain stimulation increased levels of cognitive inhibition, it did not change levels of supernatural belief, suggesting there is no direct link between cognitive inhibition and supernatural belief.
MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response: We don’t think people are ‘born believers’ in the same way we inevitably learn a language at an early age. The available sociological and historical data show that what we believe in is mainly based on social and educational factors, and not on cognitive styles, such as intuitive/analytical thinking.
Religious belief is most likely rooted in culture rather than in some primitive gut intuition.
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: We need more cross-cultural work in this area that includes not only cognitive but socio-educational variables.
MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Response: We should be very careful about conducting studies with US or UK student populations and generalising from them.
MedicalResearch.com: Thank you for your contribution to the MedicalResearch.com community.
Citation:
Supernatural Belief Is Not Modulated by Intuitive Thinking Style or Cognitive Inhibition
Miguel Farias, Valerie van Mulukom, Guy Kahane, Ute Kreplin, Anna Joyce,
Pedro Soares, Lluis Oviedo, Mathilde Hernu, Karolina Rokita, Julian Savulescu & Riikka Möttönen
Scientific Reports 7, Article number: 15100(2017)
doi:10.1038/s41598-017-14090-9
Note: Content is Not intended as medical advice. Please consult your health care provider regarding your specific medical condition and questions.
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Last Updated on November 12, 2017 by Marie Benz MD FAAD