New study links intrinsic religious motivation to higher-level patterns of thought
'" In the study, 630 adults from from 48 countries completed a cognitive assessment in which they were asked to pick a phrase that best described a given behavior. They had the choice of picking a high-level description (which focused on why the action was performed) or a low-level description (which focused on mechanistic aspects of the action.) For example, one item asked whether “reading” was better described as “Gaining knowledge” or “Following lines of print.” ...
The researchers found that religious people with stronger intrinsic religious motivation and stronger extrinsic-personal religious motivation tended to also have stronger spiritual beliefs, which in turn was associated with thinking according to higher-level actions.
In other words, participants who agreed with statements such as “I have often had a strong sense of God’s presence” (intrinsic religiosity) and “Prayer is for peace and happiness” (extrinsic-personal religiosity) were more likely to describe reading as “Gaining knowledge,” and this relationship was mediated by the strength of spiritual beliefs, such as the belief that God is an all-pervading presence.
But extrinsic-social religiosity (“I go to church mainly because I enjoy seeing people I know there”) was unrelated to these patterns of thought. Moreover, among non-religious participants, there was no link between religious motivations and higher-order thought patterns....
“As with any research, my study has flaws,” Michaels explained. “It used a survey method, which means we cannot conclude religion and spirituality cause people to think in a more meaningful way. It’s merely a relationship. Future work that uses experimental techniques are needed to identify if there is a cause-effect relationship.” ""
'" In the study, 630 adults from from 48 countries completed a cognitive assessment in which they were asked to pick a phrase that best described a given behavior. They had the choice of picking a high-level description (which focused on why the action was performed) or a low-level description (which focused on mechanistic aspects of the action.) For example, one item asked whether “reading” was better described as “Gaining knowledge” or “Following lines of print.” ...
The researchers found that religious people with stronger intrinsic religious motivation and stronger extrinsic-personal religious motivation tended to also have stronger spiritual beliefs, which in turn was associated with thinking according to higher-level actions.
In other words, participants who agreed with statements such as “I have often had a strong sense of God’s presence” (intrinsic religiosity) and “Prayer is for peace and happiness” (extrinsic-personal religiosity) were more likely to describe reading as “Gaining knowledge,” and this relationship was mediated by the strength of spiritual beliefs, such as the belief that God is an all-pervading presence.
But extrinsic-social religiosity (“I go to church mainly because I enjoy seeing people I know there”) was unrelated to these patterns of thought. Moreover, among non-religious participants, there was no link between religious motivations and higher-order thought patterns....
“As with any research, my study has flaws,” Michaels explained. “It used a survey method, which means we cannot conclude religion and spirituality cause people to think in a more meaningful way. It’s merely a relationship. Future work that uses experimental techniques are needed to identify if there is a cause-effect relationship.” ""
