Why Do Reminders of God Influence the Self-Regulation of Nonreligious People?

Have you ever wondered how the mere mention of God can influence people’s everyday lives? In a recent article, my colleagues and I began to investigate this question, specifically by examining how reminders of God can influence how people pursue their goals. We found mixed results: Reminders of God, on the one hand, make people less willing to proactively engage in activities that will bring them closer to their goal, but on the other hand, they make people better able to resist the temptations that might detract from their goal pursuit. For example, reminders of God might make people trying to lose weight feel less inclined to go for a morning jog, while at the same time making them more likely to resist the urge to dip into the office doughnut box.

Interestingly, we found these results among both religious participants and nonreligious participants. Not only that, but we are by no means the first researchers to find that reminders of God and religion affect self-identified atheists and agnostics as well as the more religiously devout. How could this be?

read the rest here