Self-transcendence through self-inhibition?: God primes reduce self-accessibility.

Abstract

This article reports 7 studies showing that God primes inhibit self-concept accessibility. Study 1A provided the first supportive evidence using undergraduate samples. Study 1B replicated the findings using working adult participants. Study 2A to 2C showed that the inhibitory effect of the God concept on implicit self-concepts was not due to concepts related to love, power, hope, religion, devil, and father. Study 3 found the same inhibitory effect when the God prime was subliminally presented. Study 4 showed that God concept priming influenced implicit self-representations, but not other types of implicit representations. Finally, a meta-analysis of our findings reveal a large effect of priming. In addition, the effect was consistent across different religious affiliations. These findings provide evidence at the social–cognitive level that activation of God concepts can induce lower self-orientation: a possible mechanism for religious self-transcendence.