Supernatural Belief Is Not Modulated by Intuitive Thinking Style or Cognitive Inhibition

According to the Intuitive Belief Hypothesis, supernatural belief relies heavily on intuitive thinking—and decreases when analytic thinking is engaged. After pointing out various limitations in prior attempts to support this Intuitive Belief Hypothesis, we test it across three new studies using a va...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2017-11, Vol.7 (1), p.15100-8, Article 15100
Main Authors: Farias, Miguel, van Mulukom, Valerie, Kahane, Guy, Kreplin, Ute, Joyce, Anna, Soares, Pedro, Oviedo, Lluis, Hernu, Mathilde, Rokita, Karolina, Savulescu, Julian, Möttönen, Riikka
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/378/2649/2150
631/477/2811
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Cognition - physiology
Cognitive ability
Cognitive style
Female
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Hypotheses
Inhibition (Psychology)
Intuition - physiology
Male
Memory, Short-Term - physiology
Middle Aged
multidisciplinary
Religion
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Theory of Mind
Thinking - physiology
Young Adult
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Summary:According to the Intuitive Belief Hypothesis, supernatural belief relies heavily on intuitive thinking—and decreases when analytic thinking is engaged. After pointing out various limitations in prior attempts to support this Intuitive Belief Hypothesis, we test it across three new studies using a variety of paradigms, ranging from a pilgrimage field study to a neurostimulation experiment. In all three studies, we found no relationship between intuitive or analytical thinking and supernatural belief. We conclude that it is premature to explain belief in gods as ‘intuitive’, and that other factors, such as socio-cultural upbringing, are likely to play a greater role in the emergence and maintenance of supernatural belief than cognitive style.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-14090-9