Analytic atheism: A cross-culturally weak and fickle phenomenon?

Religious belief is a topic of longstanding interest to psychological science, but the psychology of religious disbelief is a relative newcomer. One prominently discussed model is analytic atheism, wherein cognitive reflection, as measured with the Cognitive Reflection Test, overrides religious intu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Judgment and Decision Making 2018-05, Vol.13 (3), p.268-274
Main Authors: Gervais, Will M, Michiel van Elk, Xygalatas, Dimitris, McKay, Ryan T, Aveyard, Mark, Buchtel, Emma E, Dar-Nimrod, Ilan, Klocová, Eva Kundtová, Ramsay, Jonathan E, Riekki, Tapani, Svedholm-Häkkinen, Annika M, Bulbulia, Joseph
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atheism
atheism
cultural learning
dual process cognition
religious cognition
replicability
WEIRD people
cultureNAKeywords
Cognition & reasoning
Culture
Decision making
Religion
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Summary:Religious belief is a topic of longstanding interest to psychological science, but the psychology of religious disbelief is a relative newcomer. One prominently discussed model is analytic atheism, wherein cognitive reflection, as measured with the Cognitive Reflection Test, overrides religious intuitions and instruction. Consistent with this model, performance-based measures of cognitive reflection predict religious disbelief in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, ＆ Democratic) samples. However, the generality of analytic atheism remains unknown. Drawing on a large global sample (N = 3461) from 13 religiously, demographically, and culturally diverse societies, we find that analytic atheism as usually assessed is in fact quite fickle cross-culturally, appearing robustly only in aggregate analyses and in three individual countries. The results provide additional evidence for culture's effects on core beliefs.
ISSN:1930-2975
1930-2975
DOI:10.1017/s1930297500007701