This is your brain on religion
This is your brain on religion
Believers record lower levels of anxiety, which can boost performance but also hinder the ability to fix mistakes, study finds
Article Comments OMAR EL AKKAD
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
March 5, 2009 at 4:03 AM EST
A group of Toronto scientists have found God - or at least the effect God has on a believer's brain.
Newly published research by University of Toronto and York University professors points to reduced stress and anxiety among test subjects who consider themselves to be religious, compared with non-believers, when completing a task under pressure. As a result, the believers performed better on cognitive tests.
"[Religious people] were much less anxious and stressed when they made an error," said Michael Inzlicht, an assistant psychology professor at the University of Toronto and a co-author of the study. "I don't think this has to do with fundamentalism, it's something deeper - religion provides meaning in peoples' lives."
But Prof. Inzlicht said that while a low level of anxiety can boost performance, it also functions as a sort of "alarm bell," and too little activity in that part of the brain can hurt the ability to correct mistakes.
"The more they believe, the less brain activity we see in response to their own errors," he said. In some ways, he added, "that's a good thing. But on the other side, we need to know when we're making a mistake. If we don't, we may make the same mistake again."
In their first study, researchers asked subjects to complete a "religious zeal questionnaire," which included questions such as whether they believed their religion was more correct than others', Prof. Inzlicht said. The subjects were then given a test that involved naming the colour of the letters in a word such as "red" or "blue" (for example, the word "red" may appear in blue font).
Researchers monitored brain activity using electrodes. The results showed that subjects with more religious zeal experienced less activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, a part of the brain that is involved in the experience of anxiety and helps modify behaviour. The more religious zeal individuals showed, the better they did on the test.
In a second test, subjects were simply asked to rate their belief in God, rather than answer detailed questions about their conviction. Even less fervent belief in God resulted in lower levels of anxiety than among non-believers.
Prof. Inzlicht said a subsequent study showed a change in brain activity even when all the subjects were religious. In this study, members of one group were asked to write down why their religion was important, whereas those in another group were asked to describe a topic such as their favourite season. Those who had been primed to discuss their religion once again showed less activity in the portion of the brain associated with anxiety.
David Reed, professor emeritus of pastoral theology and a research professor at Wycliffe College, said he isn't surprised by the study's results.
"Religious people, and I'm speaking for Christians but also other faiths as well, have some larger purpose other than themselves," he said. "They have a more longitudinal view of life, in that they take it beyond death."
Pat O'Brien, president of Humanist Canada, could not comment specifically because he had not seen the study, but said he has heard about others that correlate religious belief with wellbeing. Such studies, he added, still don't answer a fundamental question.
"It probably still doesn't answer the question of whether there's a God or not," he said. "[Even] Santa Claus can make you feel good."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090305.wbrains05/BN...
"The more they believe, the less brain activity we see in response to their own errors," he said. In some ways, he added, "that's a good thing. But on the other side, we need to know when we're making a mistake. If we don't, we may make the same mistake again."
That's because they let their gods 'fix' their own mistakes...which doesn't sound logical.
I may also be religious, but the reason is for me to believe on a capacity of a 'miracle man' and His evolution to survive on 'breaking the laws of physics'.
"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
Maybe you should have posted it as a question, instead of in a thread about religion. I tend to avoid those :-/
And Boss I thought you knew where EVERYTHING in Doha was...IDesign is in The Mall
===================================== http://www.qatarliving.com/node/58409
Idesign where the hell is that now. and why are you replying so late when i already brought something else :/
damn lazy you are.
I got an L shaped sofa at IDesign.
Sorry, I guess it was the "last piece" :-P
this is what will happen if god disappeared!
"Deaths in the Bible. God - 2,270,365
not including the victims of Noah's flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, or the
many plagues, famines, fiery serpents, etc because no specific numbers
were given. Satan - 10."
My brain works better knowing Xenu is watching out for me.
My brains works better when I beleive I can fly..
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HE WHO DARES WINS
WORKLOAD
vs
TIME TO BEER-O-CLOCK
vs
QL POINTS
Please have this graph to me by end of school today.
thank you for the kind suggestion i really appreciate that owe you 2 kitkats now :D
Religion and Brain.. Some religion allows more than one marriage at one time, which mean that the man has to keep all happy. Which means that the guys is constantly behaving like a rabbit..
It has been proven that sex stimulates the Brain..
So the conclusion of the finding is that to be religious you have to be good at it to make your brains work..
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HE WHO DARES WINS
Da - buy two sofas, chop one armrest of one of them and then arrange them in an L-shape.
The One had loads when I was there.
Yes Tallg you can. YOu can also tell when it's Thursday and I don't have the brainpower to work anymore. :P
lol - you could plot a nice graph correlating Gypsy's workload vs the number of points she earns on QL.
ok i have work for you then go find me the damn L shaped sofa i cant find any around :/ home center sucks the one sucks salwa road argh
DaRude: yes.
are you really that bored today
You got a point there..
I would also be interested to find out if the correlation to the lower anxiety levels can be attributed to the fact that most people who believe strongly in there faith also have the belief that in times of testing that God would show them the way, hence the finding. This would also explain the reasoning behind not being able to fix their mistakes.
If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day when nobody died....Chad Kroeger
I think it's the type of mistake, I don't think their referring to "sins" here, but most probably math or logic mistakes.
i think its the other way round. i'd argue that religious people are more conscientious when they make a mistake because they believe God will ultimately catch them. on the other hand, areligious people try their best but do not take responsibility of their mistakes to such a level.
and the weekend begins.
I'd be interested if they'd gone a bit more indepth into what they mean by not correcting their mistakes.
When I abstain from praying...am more prone to encounter troubles..
Off late I am not praying...dunno what happened to me..and I fractured my toe..lol my first ever fracture..
Qatarization and religion.. almost never fails to catch my eye...
- Yes, meaning in peoples' lives and balances out a type A personality.
But "The more they believe, the less brain activity we see in response to their own errors,"
- Does this have any ref to Qatarization? Well, maybe but things can always change for the better. Main thing - one's focus in life. Spirit controls mind including attitude and everything else follows.
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Don't want no drama,
No, no drama, no, no, no, no drama