Alexandria Digital Research Library

Core intuitions about persons co-exist and interfere with acquired Christian beliefs about God

Author:
Barlev, Michael
Degree Grantor:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Psychological & Brain Sciences
Degree Supervisor:
Tamsin German
Place of Publication:
[Santa Barbara, Calif.]
Publisher:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Creation Date:
2015
Issued Date:
2015
Topics:
Psychology
Keywords:
Person concept
Theological incorrectness
Core cognition
Religious beliefs
God concept
Genres:
Online resources and Dissertations, Academic
Dissertation:
M.A.--University of California, Santa Barbara, 2015
Description:

In three experiments, using a novel sentence verification paradigm, we tested the hypothesis that acquired Christian beliefs about God which are inconsistent with core intuitions about persons co-exist with, rather than replace, those intuitions in the minds of religious believers. Participants were asked to evaluate a series of statements for which core intuitions and acquired religious beliefs were consistent (i.e. true according to both [e.g. "God has beliefs that are true"] or false according to both [e.g. "all beliefs God has are false"]) or inconsistent (i.e. true on intuition but false theologically [e.g. "God has beliefs that are false"] or false on intuition but true theologically [e.g. "all beliefs God has are true"]). Participants (1) were less accurate and took longer to respond to the inconsistent statements, suggesting that core intuitions both co-exist alongside and interfere with acquired religious beliefs (Experiments 1 and 2), (2) were disproportionately more likely to make errors on the inconsistent statements when responding under time pressure than when responding with no time pressure, suggesting that the resolution of conflicts between inconsistent co-existing beliefs requires cognitive resources (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 ruled-out a plausible alternative interpretation of these results.

Physical Description:
1 online resource (64 pages)
Format:
Text
Collection(s):
UCSB electronic theses and dissertations
ARK:
ark:/48907/f3c53kc1
ISBN:
9781339471983
Catalog System Number:
990046179500203776
Rights:
Inc.icon only.dark In Copyright
Copyright Holder:
Michael Barlev
File Description
Access: Public access
Barlev_ucsb_0035N_12821.pdf pdf (Portable Document Format)