Epiphenom is a blog written by Dr. Tomas Rees, a biotechnology researcher and medical writer. The blog describes studies from psychology, sociology, neuroscience, and genetics in relation to religious beliefs. This post links to some of the most fascinating and informative posts on Dr. Rees’ blog. My post The Biology of Religion also links to studies of the interactions between biology and religious behavior.
2008:
When both parents are non-religious, 90% of their children are also non-religious. (Link)
People who are primed to feel lonely are more likely to become religious and anthropomorphize. (Link)
Less religious societies have lower levels of antisocial behavior. (Link)
Fundamentalists in the USA have behaviors that are not conducive to maintaining wealth. (Link)
Going to church is linked with depression in Asian and Latino children. (Link)
The right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex is linked to pain reduction in religious believers. (Link)
People who rate themselves as closer to God have had higher levels of depression in the past. (Link)
Making students more anxious makes them more likely to support religious martyrdom. (Link)
Religious people are just as likely to cheat as nonbelievers when not prompted with religious cues. (Link)
People with brain damage in the right parietal lobes score higher on a measure of spirituality. (Link)
2009:
Religiosity has a large genetic component. (Link)
Priming people with thoughts of prayer reduces their support for suicide attacks, whereas priming them with thoughts of religious attendance increases their support for suicide attacks. (Link)
Spiritual recovery is not helpful for recovering from substance abuse. (Link)
Different religious beliefs and nonbeliefs are linked with certain regions in the brain. (Link)
For men, being religious isn’t connected to better health. (Link)
Religious believers are less anxious when they make mistakes. (Link)
Religiosity is one of the strongest predictors of homophobia. (Link)
Women are more religious than men, except among those who believe in an afterlife. (Link)
Women are more superstitious than men. (Link)
Agreeableness and conscientiousness are the most consistent personality predictors of who is religious. (Link)
People who think of God in an anthropomorphic way are more judgmental of immoral actions. (Link)
People who believe in a judgmental God – as opposed to a close and loving God – have higher levels of psychosis. (Link)
Personal prayer is linked to theory of mind processing areas in the brain. (Link)
Education increases church attendance while lowering religious belief. (Link)
Southern Baptists value fairness much less than Unitarians, support authority and purity much more, and focus on avoiding harm much less. (Link)
People who are very certain that they have high morals are more likely to cheat and be tough on subordinates. (Link)
Psychology professors are the least religious professors in America, while accounting professors are the most religious. (Link)
Anxiety over loss of control can increase belief in God. (Link)
Being primed with religious information can make people more willing to take revenge. (Link)
Higher government welfare spending is linked to less religion. (Link)
People who have been made to think about death report greater levels of religious belief and more belief in God. (Link)
People who believe they are close to God but do not go to church are more likely to have an affair. (Link)
Countries with worse societal health are more religious. (Link)
Income inequality correlates strongly with religiosity in a society. (Link)
Muslims have higher levels of death anxiety than Christians and nonbelievers. (Link)
The process of evaluating religious statements is linked to emotions of disgust and pain in the brain. (Link)
Religiosity is socially transmitted. (Link)
States with more religious people have a higher teen birth rate. (Link)
Religious believers tend to rate themselves as being either very happy or very unhappy. (Link)
Income inequality and low state welfare spending are associated with more religion. (Link)
Intimacy with God is greater in people who have more neurons in an area of the brain involved with interpersonal relationships. (Link)
Uncertainty doesn’t increase religiosity if people are first made to feel good about themselves. (Link)
People invoke God to give meaning to events if those events have a moral dimension. (Link)
People project their opinions and beliefs onto God. (Link)
A high level of deference to God is linked to support for heroic end-of-life medical interventions. (Link)
2010:
Reminding people of mate competition increases religiosity. (Link)
Self-deception and image manipulation are linked to higher levels of intrinsic religiosity. (Link)
Asian Christians are more fatalistic. (Link)
Loss of function in the parietal lobes is linked to feelings of transcendence. (Link)
Countries that have high average religiosity and low average IQ have higher fertility rates. (Link)
Religiosity is linked to agreeableness and conscientiousness. (Link)
Subliminal religious prompts can make people work longer on an impossible task while feeling more anxious about it. (Link)
People who were most affected by the Indonesian financial crisis responded by becoming more religious. (Link)
Anxiety increases religious belief and religion can reduce anxiety. (Link)
Some patients with right temporal lobe atrophy (but not left temporal lobe atrophy) are hyperreligious. (Link)
People in the bottom quartile of intelligence are the most religious and people in the top quartile of intelligence are the least religious. (Link)
People who are made to feel less powerful are more susceptible to zealotry. (Link)
Priming religious people with religious thoughts reduces their error response negativity, whereas priming nonbelievers with religious thoughts increases their error response negativity. (Link)
Psychotic patients with religious delusions have more complex conditions than other psychotic patients. (Link)
People belonging to Christian groups are more supportive of the death penalty than nonbelievers are. (Link)
Active duty military personnel are less likely to be religious than other military personnel. (Link)
Maintenance of religious belief is driven by family influences, while changing religious belief is driven by genetic and environmental influences. (Link)
Portraying the government as effective reduces the strength of the belief in a controlling God. (Link)
People primed to think about religion are less likely to choose branded goods, while the least religious people are more likely to favor branded goods. (Link)
Children are more likely to be emotionally disturbed if they have weakly held religious beliefs, as opposed to no religious beliefs or strongly held religious beliefs. (Link)
Mormons can be identified by facial shape and skin tone. (Link)
Religious prejudice and racial prejudice stem from a similar affiliation mechanism. (Link)
Feelings of transcendence are linked to greater amounts of grey matter in the middle temporal gyrus and inferior parietal gyrus. (Link)
2011:
Americans say they go to church about twice as often as they actually do. (Link)
Evangelicals think Wal-Mart is a good place to work. (Link)
Boys who think religious ends justify the means have higher testosterone levels. (Link)
People who go to church more often report that they are sicker. (Link)
People who use a passive religious coping style are less likely to take their medicine. (Link)
People who report having a religious affiliation are less likely to support income redistribution. (Link)
The need to belong influences belief in God. (Link)
A religious belief characterized by intense beliefs in a clash between good and evil is a major cause of homicide. (Link)
Fear of terrorism increases faith in religion. (Link)
People with a life-changing religious experience have more hippocampal atrophy than Mainline Protestants. (Link)
Non-religious nations have a higher quality of life. (Link)
Countries where many people believe in Hell have a higher level of fear. (Link)
Tightly controlled societies are more religious. (Link)
Belief in God helps people cope with uncertainty. (Link)
In countries with high levels of inequality, the rich and poor are both more likely to be religious, with the rich being even more religious than the poor. (Link)
Countries with more income inequality have fewer atheists. (Link)
Intuitive thinkers are more likely to believe in God and immortal souls. (Link)
More religious countries have fewer property rights. (Link)
Priming authoritarians with religious information makes them more likely to obey social norms. (Link)
Christians are more likely than Jews to think that immoral thoughts alone are harmful. (Link)
Religious nations are more sexist. (Link)
Religious diversity is linked to increased unhappiness. (Link)
Widows and widowers are more religious, while divorced people are the least religious. (Link)
2012:
Prosociality in response to religious priming is affected by dopamine gene receptor variants. (Link)
Religious people prefer religious leaders who belong to any major religion. (Link)
Being near a church makes people more hostile to outsiders. (Link)
More religious metropolitan areas have better credit scores, fewer foreclosures, and fewer bankruptcies. (Link)
Death anxiety is highest in people with average religious feelings. (Link)
People with deliberate thinking styles are less likely to have religious beliefs. (Link)
Religion is linked to the belief in a just world. (Link)
Religious believers think Jesus shares their political views. (Link)
Distrust of atheists can be reduced by strengthening the belief in police effectiveness. (Link)
People think magic rituals with more steps and more repetitions are more effective. (Link)
Religious primes can help people resist temptation and delay gratification. (Link)
