Use of prayer by African-Americans can help explain why they are more sensitive to pain
African-Americans are more sensitive to pain than Caucasian (white) Americans. That’s been shown in comparisons of much pain is experienced in illnesses such as AIDS and arthritis, after surgery, and in conditions such as lower back pain. It’s also been shown experimentally, when volunteers undergo painful experiences (like holding your hand in ice-cold water) and report [Read More…]
Do you wanna be in my clan? Moralising gods encourage long-distance sharing with co-religionists
Most gods that have been invented don’t give a damn about what us mortals get up to. Researchers think that belief in the few that do, the ones that can be thought of as moralising gods, might have a significant effect on behaviour. For example, more complex societies are more likely to believe in moralising [Read More…]
The decline of religion in Europe did not lead to a decline in moral standards
Morality is a complex notion, and means different things to different people. Still, there remains a pervasive idea that religion is linked in some general way to moral behaviour. Trying to work out from the data what truth there is in that is tough, but at least we can say with some confidence what people’s [Read More…]
Religion linked to reduced levels of stress hormones in young American Blacks
Compared with Whites, Black Americans have high levels of an important stress hormone called cortisol circulating in their bloodstream. No-one really knows why this is, but the differences remain even after you take into account social and psychological factors. It seems likely that simply being black exposes you to a cumulative effect of increased lifetime [Read More…]
How religious schools led to the decline of Arabic science
The world’s first scientific renaissance took place not in Italy, but in the Arab world. The period between the 9th and 11th centuries AD, when Islam took hold of a band of territory strategy from Spain in the West through to what is now Pakistan, saw an extraordinary intellectual flowering. Scientists in the Arab world [Read More…]
A sense of mystery results from the brain failing to shut down flights of fancy
People who have a mystical experience might describe it as being “touched by some higher or greater truth or power“, or as “experiences felt or experienced beyond the realms of ordinary consciousness”. Psychologists define them as a breakdown in the usual sense of time or space, or of the difference between the self and the [Read More…]
Top 10 studies of the psychology of religion from 2015
New Year’s Day is closing in fast – so it must be annual round-up time! Here’s the research news on psychology of belief and non-belief that I found most interesting over the past year – the top 10 – and in reverse order, naturally. 10. Conspiracy theories flourish when people feel like things are slipping [Read More…]
Whether religious people are more healthy depends upon the social context
One of the accepted truisms of religious research is that religious people tend to be healthier than the non-religious. Over the years I’ve seen many studies looking into this but haven’t blogged about any since 2012 because, well, they’re all a bit boring. One of the problems is that almost all the research is done [Read More…]
Trust is more important than religion in encouraging charitable acts
It’s well established that religious people tend to volunteer more and give more to charity than the non-religious. There are many factors that could contribute to this. Many charities that explicitly to support co-religionists or to promote religion, and what’s more religious people also tend to be older and married, both of which predict But [Read More…]
Can atheism increase stock market volatility?
Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. It’s a ridiculous idea, so daft it’s probably not even worth spending time thinking about. But stick with me on this because the analysis is a fascinating one. I’m talking about a recent study by Benjamin Blau, a finance expert at Utah State University. He picked up on a [Read More…]
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