People who have undergone analytical thinking are more likely to have decreased religious belief, researchers from the University of British Columbia reported in the journal Science. The authors added that even among devout believers, after a period of analytical thinking religious belief appeared to go down.

It seems that everybody is affected by thinking analytically, the authors explained; i.e. believers and skeptics alike are both impacted – their religious belief appears to become less so after a period of analytical thinking.

Lead author Will Gervais, a PhD student, said:

“Our goal was to explore the fundamental question of why people believe in a God to different degrees.

A combination of complex factors influence matters of personal spirituality, and these new findings suggest that the cognitive system related to analytic thoughts is one factor that can influence disbelief.”

In order to get participants into an analytic thinking mode, the researchers got them to solve problems, complete questionnaires in difficult-to-read fonts, and do mathematical puzzles.

When the participants were engaged in analytical tasks, their religious beliefs appeared to decrease, compared to those doing non-analytical tasks. In other words, those in an analytical frame of mind were less likely to have heightened religious beliefs than the other participants.

Gervais says that their findings are based on the psychology model that has been around for a long time, of two different, but related systems in which humans process information:

  • An intuitive system – mental shortcuts are used. This system yields rapid and efficient responses

  • An analytical system – the approached results in more reasoned and deliberate responses

Study co-author, Prof. Ara Norenzayan:

“Our study builds on previous research that links religious beliefs to ‘intuitive’ thinking. Our findings suggest that activating the ‘analytic’ cognitive system in the brain can undermine the ‘intuitive’ support for religious belief, at least temporarily.”

The study included 650 American and Canadian individuals. Gervais explained that further studies will determine whether raised religious disbelief is long- or short-term. Researchers would also like to find out how their findings might relate to non-Western cultures.

Most people worldwide believe in a God, Norenzayan explained. However, there are hundreds of millions of agnostics and atheists. Religious faith is shaped by cultural and psychological factors that vary across time and situations.

Written by Christian Nordqvist