Religious Priming Research Articles

COVID angels fighting daily demons? Mental well-being of healthcare workers and religiosity

Relying on a unique survey of more than 15,000 healthcare workers conducted from June to August 2020 in Italy, we show that religious priming caused participants to have a less dramatic recollection of their distressful experience during the first wave of COVID-19. Consistent with the view that religiosity serves as a coping mechanism, this effect was stronger for those who were more exposed to the virus categories during the first wave of the pandemic (e.g hospital workers) and for respondents who faced more stressful situations, such as being reassigned due to the COVID-19 emergency, or working in a COVID-19-related specialty (e.g, emergency care). All things being equal, the effect was found to be stronger among nurses, who indeed were identified as “COVID angels” during the intense media campaign of the first wave. We find no evidence that the results are sensitive to either the timing of the survey response or distance from the main events recollected.

Unutargrupna pristranost / In-Group Bias

Religion represents a system of beliefs, understandings, and actions from which religious individuals draw an array of values for their judgments of the world. Religiousness is a multidimensional construct comprising a multitude of religious orientations of which extrinsic and intrinsic religiousness are the most prominent in scientific literature. Also, in the social psychological domain, religion represents a social group whose members show a tendency toward in-group bias, a phenomenon basically immanent in every social group. The construct of in-group favoritism refers to a tendency of favoring one’s in-group members over out-group members. The focus of this paper is oriented on the basic dimensions of religiousness and their behavioral manifestations such as in-group favoritism, prejudice, biases in prosocial behavior, etc. Based on scientific literature, the aim of this paper is to determine the relations between religiousness and in-group bias, i.e., favoring the in-group and derogation of the out-group. An additional aim is to demonstrate the importance of the influence of religious priming on the social behavior of an individual in terms of making or breaking in-group biases and out-group prejudices.

God, Can I Give Up?: The Diverging Effects of God-Related Thoughts on Task Persistence in Chinese Buddhists and Taoists

ABSTRACT Previous research has indicated that religiosity and engagement in faith practices are associated with increased task persistence. However, in this study, we sought to challenge this long-standing assumption by demonstrating that priming God-related concepts can actually lead to reduced task persistence in Taoism, a religion emphasizing passivity, calmness, and inaction. To investigate this theoretical perspective, we conducted two experimental studies using different behavioral measures of task persistence (anagram task and mirror-tracing task) and diverse religious priming techniques (the scrambled-sentence task and religious reading task). In Study 1, when Chinese Taoists were first reminded of God and then completed an unsolvable anagram task purported to measure the maturation of verbal abilities, they exhibited lower levels of task persistence than those in the neutral prime condition. In Study 2, we found that Taoist participants exposed to God-related primes spent less time on tracing a difficult geometric figures, indicating lower levels of task persistence. Across two studies, we replicated prior findings that exposure to God representations increased task persistence in Chinese Buddhists, who belong to a non-Abraham religious group. These results provided the first experimental evidence that activating thoughts of God may have divergent effects on task persistence in members of different religions.

Do reminders of God increase willingness to take risks?

Many people, and American Christians in particular, view God as a benevolent protector. Those who believe in God may therefore expect that they can safely engage in potentially risky activities, secure in the knowledge that God will look out for their best interests and ensure good outcomes. Initial experiments supported this hypothesis, but recent attempts to replicate them failed. This unreliable pattern may reflect a false conceptual hypothesis, or an inadequate method: Both the initial reports and the replication attempts used outdated religious priming methods we now know to be ineffective. The present research aimed to clarify the relationship between thinking about God and risk-taking behaviors. A pilot study (N = 264) showed that American Christians do expect that God will protect them during risky activities; moreover, those who hold this expectation more strongly report greater willingness to take risks. This registered report then used a high-powered preregistered experiment to test whether having participants explicitly think about God's (presumably protective) influence over what happens in their lives increases their willingness to take risks. Results confirmed that American Christian participants were more willing to take non-moral risks when thinking about God, compared to a control condition, d = 0.28, 95% CI [0.12, 0.44], p < .001. This pattern was robust to different exclusion criteria and was consistent across domains of career, recreational, and social risks. By using the most recent and sensitive methods, this study provides a more definitive test of the conceptual hypothesis that thinking about God can influence risk-taking.

Mind Attribution to Gods and Christians in the Chinese Cultural Context

AbstractDrawing on the distinction in mind perception between agency and experience, this research examined whether and how culture‐based religion affects mind attribution to gods and Christians in a religious priming paradigm. When attributing mind to gods in Study 1, participants in the religious priming condition attributed more agency to gods than those in the neutral condition. When attributing mind to human religious targets in Study 2, religious participants in the religious priming condition attributed more experience to a Christian target than those in the neutral condition, while atheist participants in the religious priming condition attributed less experience to a Christian target than those in the neutral condition. In addition, religious participants in the religious priming condition attributed more experience to an atheist target than those in the neutral condition. Taken together, mind attribution to religious targets varied on agency and experience, and showed its own cultural features in China.

Promising Happiness in Light of International Advertising Standardization: Religiosity and Religious Priming Overshadow Cross-Cultural Factors

Advertising campaigns that explicitly claim that the advertised product can bring happiness to the consumer's life are often standardized across national markets. While it seems intuitive that most people want to be happy and might respond favorably to calls for happiness, the literature offers little to no evidence to support this common managerial practice. Through two studies conducted in cultural settings as different as the United Arab Emirates and the United States, this research shows that cross-cultural factors matter less than personal and situational factors such as religiosity and religious priming, respectively. Specifically, the author found that lower (higher) religiosity levels led to worse (better) ratings for happiness-based (vs. control) claims. Moreover, exposure to religious cues flipped the relationship between higher religiosity levels and liking for ads featuring happiness-based claims because of altered perceptions of the brand's control over the claim. This research sheds light on the interactive role of religiosity and religious priming on consumer response to standardized secular advertising.

Does Religious Priming Induce Greater Prejudice? A Meta-Analytic Review.

The current meta-analysis addressed whether theistic religious beliefs are causally related to greater prejudice by analyzing 44 studies (Ntotal = 11,330) that used experimental designs-priming religion and then measuring negativity toward outgroups (e.g., LGBT and Muslim). The overall priming effect was significant but small (r = .06), indicating that priming religion increases prejudice. The implications of these results for the relation between religion and prejudice and for future work on religious priming are discussed.

Cognitively Accessible Words Associated with God as Effective Lexical Primes

Do the words used to prime the concept of God in psychology of religion research studies accurately reflect a mental representation of God? To examine this, two samples completed a free-association task, where they listed 10 words that came to mind when they thought about God (Studies 1a–1b). We found that more than half of the lexical primes used in previous studies were rarely or never produced (&lt; 5 times) in the 2,610 free-association responses. Using a false memory paradigm, Study 2 revealed that the most frequent free-association words produced in Studies 1a and 1b more effectively primed the concept of God than a set of prime words used in previous religious priming studies that were not frequent free-association words in Studies 1a and 1b. This research advances the methodological practices in religious priming research and contributes to an understanding of people’s thoughts about God.

The God of Big (And Good) Things: Religious Priming, Event Properties, and Supernatural Explanations

ABSTRACT Humans have a pervasive tendency to make causal attributions when attempting to explain life events. While causality is often attributed to naturalistic forces, such as the agency of individuals or situational factors, many individuals – particularly those who hold religious or spiritual beliefs – invoke supernatural explanations that ascribe causation to invisible forces or agents such as God(s), fate, or karma. The present research sought to clarify conflicting findings regarding the types of events that tend to elicit supernatural explanations, and to investigate whether reminders of religion exerts a causal effect on these tendencies using priming methodologies. Over two studies (N = 119; N = 121), we observed a consistently greater tendency to invoke supernatural explanations of various kinds when event outcomes were serious and positive. A significant influence of religious priming was observed only for one type of supernatural explanation in Study 1, while inconsistent interactions between valence and seriousness were also observed. These findings are consistent with the notions of “God-of-the-gaps” and God-serving attributional biases, although evidence for a causal influence of reminders of religion on these processes remains inconclusive.

Moralistic and local god beliefs and the extent of prosocial preferences on Tanna Island, Vanuatu

ABSTRACT The co-existence of Christian and indigenous “Kastom” belief systems on Tanna Island, Vanuatu provides a rare opportunity to explore the relationship between cooperation and religion. Here, we use data on religious beliefs and practices, religious priming, and four versions of a dictator game at two sites—one predominantly Christian and one predominantly Kastom—to test a suite of hypotheses linking prosocial behavior to beliefs about and commitment to both a powerful moralistic god and a less morally concerned local supernatural force. We found belief that the moralistic god was more punitive did not predict increased giving towards co-religionists but did predict giving more to a religious outgroup member over a co-religionist. Belief that the moralistic god was more rewarding predicted less giving towards a distant coreligionist or outgroup member. Religious commitment predicted giving to a distant coreligionist over someone from one's own village. We did not find any effect of beliefs about and commitment to less morally-concerned local supernatural forces on giving. We also did not find the predicted effects of religious priming on giving. These findings suggest a more complex relationship between religious beliefs and prosocial behavior than current theory can accommodate.

Religious Belief, Religious Priming, and Negative Word of Mouth

This research examines the effects of religious belief and religious priming on negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) behavior. Drawing on social exchange and norm paradigms, the authors theorize and find evidence of the unique effects of religious belief and religious priming on NWOM in everyday service failure encounters. Specifically, they find that religious belief is associated with higher NWOM, driven by a greater sensitivity to violations of fairness norms, which in turn reduces forgiveness. However, exposure to religious priming attenuates NWOM among more religious consumers by reducing sensitivity to violations of fairness norms, which in turn enhances forgiveness. A field study involving over 1.2 million online reviews of actual restaurant experiences, in addition to four lab studies, provides support for the theorized effects. This study sheds light on the religion–forgiveness discrepancy by establishing the mediating role of sensitivity to fairness violations on the relationship between religion and forgiveness in the NWOM context. Further, the results demonstrate the importance of religion as a strategic variable in the management of service failure experiences, providing theoretical implications for the literature on the effects of religion on consumer behavior.

Past Its Prime? A Methodological Overview and Critique of Religious Priming Research in Social Psychology

Social psychologists have frequently used priming methodologies to explore how religion can impact behaviour. Despite this, no consensus currently exists on whether religious priming effects are replicable or consistently observed across a range of spiritual beliefs. Moreover, mixed evidence highlights possible methodological shortcomings within the priming literature as well as theoretical ambiguity regarding the contents of different primes. The current article examines four types of religious priming methodologies that are frequently used in social-psychological research (explicit, implicit, subliminal, and contextual) and critically inspects the current landscape of the religious priming literature. We highlight theoretical issues and suggest methodological improvements that should facilitate a clearer understanding of when and how religion influences human behaviour.

Replicating and extending the effects of auditory religious cues on dishonest behavior.

Although scientists agree that replications are critical to the debate on the validity of religious priming research, religious priming replications are scarce. This paper attempts to replicate and extend previously observed effects of religious priming on ethical behavior. We test the effect of religious instrumental music on individuals' ethical behavior with university participants (N = 408) in the Czech Republic, Japan, and the US. Participants were randomly assigned to listen to one of three musical tracks (religious, secular, or white noise) or to no music (control) for the duration of a decision-making game. Participants were asked to indicate which side of a vertically-bisected computer screen contained more dots and, in every trial, indicating that the right side of the screen had more dots earned participants the most money (irrespective of the number of dots). Therefore, participants were able to report dishonestly to earn more money. In agreement with previous research, we did not observe any main effects of condition. However, we were unable to replicate a moderating effect of self-reported religiosity on the effects of religious music on ethical behavior. Nevertheless, further analyses revealed moderating effects for ritual participation and declared religious affiliation congruent with the musical prime. That is, participants affiliated with a religious organization and taking part in rituals cheated significantly less than their peers when listening to religious music. We also observed significant differences in cheating behavior across samples. On average, US participants cheated the most and Czech participants cheated the least. We conclude that normative conduct is, in part, learned through active membership in religious communities and our findings provide further support for religious music as a subtle, moral cue.

Do Religious Primes Increase Risk Taking? Evidence Against “Anticipating Divine Protection” in Two Preregistered Direct Replications of Kupor, Laurin, and Levav (2015)

Do reminders of God encourage people to take more risks? Kupor, Laurin, and Levav (2015) reported nine studies that all yielded statistically significant results consistent with the hypothesis that they do. We conducted two large-sample Preregistered Direct Replications (N = 1,104) of studies in Kupor et al.’s article (Studies 1a and 1b) and evaluated replicability via (a) statistical significance, (b) a “small-telescopes” approach, (c) Bayes factors (BFs), and (d) meta-analyses pooled across original and replication studies. None of these approaches replicated the original studies’ effects. Combining both original studies and both replications yielded strong evidence in support of the null over a default alternative hypothesis, BF01 = 11.04, meaning that the totality of evidence speaks against the possibility that religious primes increased nonmoral risk taking in these designs. This suggests that support for the “anticipating-divine-protection” hypothesis may be overstated.

A Religious Paradox: Can Priming Ideas of God Reduce Rape Victim Blame?

Rape victim blame contributes to unreported incidents of sexual assault and failure to support victims (Ahrens in American Journal of Community Psychology, 38(3-4), 263-274, 2006). The present study investigated the relationship between religiosity, religious priming, and rape victim blame. Using an online Qualtrics panel, 247 U.S. participants were randomly assigned to either a neutral prime or a religious prime. They then read a short vignette of an acquaintance rape scenario and answered questions regarding perceptions of victim blame, victim credibility, benevolent and hostile sexism, religiosity, religious fundamentalism, and Rape Myth Acceptance (RMA). Results revealed that the religious prime reduced victim blame for highly religious participants but not among participants scoring lower in religiosity. The results confirmed that religiosity was positively correlated with both victim blame and RMA. The data also confirmed previous findings that men scored higher on blame than women and that higher religiosity correlated with higher victim blame. Additionally, RMA mediated the relationship between religiosity and rape victim blame. The results of this study could prove valuable in settings where sexual assault demands action from specifically religious individuals or institutions (e.g., jurors on a rape case in a highly-religious region or religious universities trying to confront the high prevalence of sexual assault on campus).

When a good god makes bad people: Testing a theory of religion and immorality.

When might religious belief lower ethical standards? We propose a theory of religion and immorality that makes 3 central predictions. First, people will judge immoral acts as more permissible when they make divine attributions for these acts, seeing them as enabled by an intervening God. Second, people will be more likely to make divine attributions when evaluating passive immorality (e.g., keeping a lost wallet) than active immorality (e.g., pick-pocketing) because human action makes people less likely to infer God's agency. Third, believers will be more likely than nonbelievers to perpetrate passive immorality, because they feel justified taking advantage of God's beneficence. Thirteen studies support these predictions. Our findings show that people who attribute events to God judge morally questionable behaviors more leniently (Study 1), American states with more prayer groups have higher rates of crime (Study 2), and experimentally manipulated divine attributions lead people to see selfish and harmful behavior as less immoral (Study 3). Divine attributions-and corresponding moral permissibility-are more likely with passive immorality than with active immorality (Studies 4-7). Compared with nonbelievers, believers are more likely to justify their own passive immorality (Study 8), and to commit everyday acts of passive immorality such as parking across multiple spaces (Study 9) and keeping overdue library books (Study 10). A novel behavioral economics task reveals that although passive immorality is not affected by religious priming, it does correlate with self-reported religious belief (Studies 11-13). Finally, an internal meta-analysis supports our predictions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Religion’s role in the illusion of gender equality: Supraliminal and subliminal religious priming increases benevolent sexism.

Sexism has deep roots in human history, including most religious traditions. Many religious organizations and traditions, including Judeo-Christian beliefs, subtly approve of and espouse sexism. Previous research has detailed how religiosity and sexism, particularly benevolent sexism, are positively

Investigating Stereotypes Towards the Outgroup: The Role of Religious Concepts and Group Membership

We examined the effects of exposure to religious concepts on stereotypes of two unique groups in Israel—Arab Muslims and Arab Christians. In Study 1, Muslim persons exposed to Jewish concepts and Christian persons exposed to Christian concepts showed increased negative stereotypes toward Jews. The findings were replicated in Study 2, additionally showing that identification with the religious ingroup has a moderating effect, which either increases or reduces stereotypes following exposure to outgroup concepts. In Study 3, a control condition was run, confirming that the religious priming effects were due to an increase in negative stereotypes. Thus, the paradox of religion may be partially accounted for by group distinctiveness, exposure to specific religious content, group membership, and identification with the ingroup.

Does religious priming make people better?

Does religious priming make people better?

Effect of religious priming in prosocial and destructive behaviour

AbstractIn this paper, we study the behavioural impact of religious priming by showing participants religious words in a scrambled sentence task before a dictator game and a joy‐of‐destruction game. We also elicited data on individual religiosity and religious affiliation using a questionnaire. Priming religious words significantly increased prosocial behaviour in the dictator game, and the effect was especially striking among those reporting no religion, atheists and agnostics. The religious prime has no significant effect in mitigating destructive behaviour or own expectations of the other's destruction choice, but both destructive behaviour and expectations correlate positively with the multi‐dimensional religiosity measure.