Overlapping Mental Magisteria
Implications of Experimental Psychology for a Theory of Religious Belief as Misattribution
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12201928 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Luke W Galen (Grand Valley State University, corresponding author), Luke Galen (0000-0002-0850-2756, Department of PsychologyGrand Valley State University, Allendale, MI 49401) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 221-267 |
| Publication date | 2017-05-10 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Method & Theory in the Study of Religion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0943-3058 • E-ISSN: 1570-0682 |
| Publisher | Brill (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1163/15700682-12341393 |
| OpenAlex | W2613516065 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 156 |
Subjective religious and spiritual experiences ( rs ) are believed by many to be reliable indicators of external agency. A set of related phenomena are used to support this view that typically involve intuitions or attributions of mental interaction or experiences with rs agents. The present review integrates empirical findings from the fields of the Cognitive Sciences of Religion, experimental social psychology, and neuropsychology to support the position that individuals misattribute rs thoughts and experiences. That is, these experiences are believed to be veridical indicators of external agency when in fact they are subject to materialistic causal influences. This tendency varies as a function of individual differences and contextual conditions. rs phenomena can be artificially generated in a way that is phenomenologically indistinguishable from spontaneous experiences. Intuitions of external agency are rationalized and confabulated, leaving the mistaken impression of validation by analytic processes. The theoretical and philosophical implications of findings are discussed
Agency (philosophy · Attribution · Attribution bias · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Cognitive science · Empirical psychology · Epistemology · Folk psychology · Materialism · Misattribution of memory · Set (abstract data type · Subject (documents · Theoretical psychology · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology
CSR and Religious Belief
Why do the godless prosper? Modeling the cognitive and coalitional mechanisms that promote atheism
Religion as a defense against the awareness of death
Reflections on My Studies of the Roman Cults of Mithras for the Historical and Comparative Study of Religions
Breaking the Spell
What Do You Mean, "What Does It All Mean?" Atheism, Nonreligion, and Life Meaning
Religion, altered states of consciousness, and social change
The Elephant in the Room
Warranted Christian Belief
Religion and the five factors of personality
Bewitchment, Biology, or Both
Turning to God in the Face of Ostracism
Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception
The evolution of misbelief
Creating Social Connection Through Inferential Reproduction
God as a Substitute Attachment Figure
From Uncertainty to Extremism
Analytic Thinking Promotes Religious Disbelief
Biased Assimilation, Attitude Polarization, and Affect in Reactions to Stereotype-Relevant Scientific Information
Highly religious participants recruit areas of social cognition in personal prayer
Objectivity in the Eye of the Beholder
Religious Belief as Compensatory Control
Divine intuition
Scientific knowledge suppresses but does not supplant earlier intuitions
Cognitive biases explain religious belief, paranormal belief, and belief in life’s purpose
Believing what we do not believe
Studies of independence and conformity
Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state.
Dual-Processing Accounts of Reasoning, Judgment, and Social Cognition
The Illusion of Conscious Will
Attributions to God and Satan about life-altering events
The role of the extrapersonal brain systems in religious activity
When our thoughts are not our own
The pull of the group
Paranormal believers are more prone to illusory agency detection than skeptics
Are Psychology'S Main Methods Biased against the Worldview of Many Religious People
Miraculous Meaning
Between Religion and Science
What Does Theology Have to Do With Religion
American Possessions
When prophecy fails
Religious Experience Reconsidered
Authoritarianism and religious identification
The Need to Belong Can Motivate Belief in God
Does religious belief infect philosophical analysis
Prayer as an interpersonal relationship
Priming of supernatural agent concepts and agency detection
Religion and dual-process cognition
The illusion of reality
Is Weaker Inhibition Associated with Supernatural Beliefs
Religiosity, Adult Attachment, and Why "Singles" are More Religious
Religiosity and Perceived Control of Life Events
Mystical Experience in the Lab
Religious Socialization
Uncertainty and religious reactivity
The Sacred and the Search for Significance
Successfully challenging fundamentalist beliefs results in increased death awareness
Effects of subliminal priming of self and God on self-attribution of authorship for events
Activating Christian religious concepts increases intolerance of ambiguity and judgment certainty
Science and God
Reidian Religious Epistemology and the Cognitive Science of Religion
Naturalistic Explanation for Religious Belief
A Cross-National Test of the Uncertainty Hypothesis of Religious Belief
Making sense by making sentient
Everyday magical powers
Clever hands
The religion paradox
Rational processing or rationalization? The effect of disconfirming information on a stated religious belief
Is death really the worm at the core? Converging evidence that worldview threat increases death-thought accessibility
Behavioral receptivity to dissonant information
Is dissonance reduction a special case of fluid compensation? Evidence that dissonant cognitions cause compensatory affirmation and abstraction
A Terror Management Analysis of the Psychological Functions of Religion
"Are Children "Intuitive Theists
The unbearable automaticity of being
How convenient! The epistemic rationale of self-validating belief systems
The God Allusion
Rationalization in a Reasoning Task
How Lay Cognition Constrains Scientific Cognition
The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group
Latter-Day Saint Social Life
A Theory of Revelations
A Longitudinal Study of Changes in Religious Belief and Behavior as a Function of Individual Differences in Adult Attachment Style
Correlates of Mystical and Diabolical Experiences in a Sample of Female University Students
Making Secular and Religious Attributions
Attribution, Roles and Religion
Sunden's Role Theory and Glossolalia
Explaining Life-Altering Occurrences
Better Felt than Said
General Attribution Theory for the Psychology of Religion
Hypnotic Susceptibility and Religious Experience
The Absorption Hypothesis
Conceptualizing Spirit Possession
There Must Be a Reason
Cognitive Science of Religion
Do Genetic Factors Influence Religious Life? Findings from a Behavior Genetic Analysis of Twin Siblings
Explaining the Belief in God for Self, In-Group, and Out-Group Targets
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,75 |
| Citation span | 2018 - 2022 (5) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |