Questions tagged [religion]

for questions on the scientific psychological study of religion and spirituality

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How does religion and pseudoscience manage to convince people to do irrational things when plain scientific evidence fail? [duplicate]

EDIT: Had to edit my question for it to be re-opened. At this stage I do not care if it is re-opened but here is the edit: Stack exchange requires you to put your own research to your question or what ...
I have many questions's user avatar
4 votes
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What models of a person do psychology theorists currently use to define a healthy psyche in religious believers?

"Good mental health" is a phrase (within double quotes) that came up with 5.8 million Google hits, showing that it is a very popular layman term for a healthy psyche, however it is defined, ...
GratefulDisciple's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
251 views

Is there any evidence for a link between religiosity and belief in conspiracy theories?

I've heard claims made that more religious individuals were more likely to fall for various conspiracy theories. I've personally been able to find studies linking religiosity to belief in qanon ...
dsollen's user avatar
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Any researchers doing research in Nietzschean psychology?

I am eager to do research in Nietzschean psychology Are there any researchers doing research in this area? Thanks in advance.
T Marx's user avatar
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Psychological explanation for uncontrollable laughter and apparent symptoms of drunkenness in charismatic Christian congregations?

Holy laughter and spiritual drunkenness are two very correlated experiences that have been reported many times in charismatic Christian congregations. Quoting Wikipedia: Holy laughter is a term used ...
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1 vote
1 answer
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Do bodily manifestations (e.g. jerking) and intense euphoric sensations (e.g. "heat", "electricity") always co-occur in spiritual experiences?

After analyzing multiple reports of spiritual experiences, I've identified two general categories: Bodily manifestations: shaking, jerking, trembling, contorting, etc. (see this related question for ...
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2 votes
0 answers
174 views

Is adrenaline rush the real cause behind feelings of "electricity", "fire", "heat" or "burning all over" reported in certain religious groups? [duplicate]

Doing my own independent research, I've noticed a clear pattern of religious people reporting feelings and sensations that they usually describe with expressions such as "waves of electricity&...
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7 votes
2 answers
4k views

Is there a scientific explanation for dramatic body shaking and trembling in religious settings? (see videos for illustrative examples)

Basically the title. I would like to know if there are scientific studies on the phenomenon of experiencing sudden body shaking and trembling in religious settings, usually in response to the command ...
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1 vote
1 answer
611 views

Psychological explanation for exorcisms?

I'm doing research on alleged testimonies and evidences of the spirit realm. In particular, I've been lately reviewing testimonies and live recordings of exorcisms, some of which I find particularly ...
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2 votes
1 answer
148 views

Why does Jung suggest that we need to defend our psyche from original religious experience?

I am reading "Psychology and Religion" which is a transcribed lecture by Carl Jung. In this lecture he mentions several times how the psyche uses dogma and ritual to defend again original religious ...
Hasselhoff's user avatar
1 vote
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Is there a link between confirmation biases and a tendency to subscribe to religions?

I've just read Rolf Dobelli's The Art of Thinking Clearly, as well as Mark Manson's Everything is F*cked, which I stumbled upon the concept of cognitive biases. In the books they mentioned how ...
Lumarstar's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
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Does belief in an afterlife play a role in suicide rates?

Religious beliefs, in particular views on the afterlife, could plausibly influence suicide. Is there some study which tries to look at how belief systems play a role in the number of suicides in some ...
TKN's user avatar
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Purported exorcisms - can hypnosis cause a person to temporarily experience phenomena similar to those labelled as "DID"? [duplicate]

I've seen several videos/documentaries featuring (usually self-proclaimed) exorcists, both Catholic and Protestant, who perform "exorcism" ceremonies in which they "cast out demons". I'm personally ...
Statsanalyst's user avatar
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1 answer
191 views

How do I score people on the Religious Orientation Scale?

Where can I find the scoring and analysis of the intrinsic-extrinsic religious orientation scale given by Allport and Ross (1967). I'm unable to find it anywhere. There is also a religious orientation ...
user24003's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
570 views

Is a concept of good and bad innate or learned?

Some people would say that without religion, there would be no moral code to tell us what is good and bad. Some Darwinist's like Dawkins say that acts like sharing and feelings like guilt are innate ...
zooby's user avatar
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How to measure the correlation between "spirituality" and the susceptibility to false memories?

Is there a measurement to correlate "spirituality" (how religious one is) to susceptibility to false memories? What papers or keywords should we look for?
Rubenz's user avatar
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Correlations with alien abduction experiences [closed]

I cannot find statistics about how many supposed alien "UFO abductees" have sleep paralysis. I can't find statistics about how many alien abductees were hypnotized before concluding that they were ...
question's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
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Is there a robust method to prove the existence of reincarnation? [closed]

Is there a how-to to prove reincarnation? And secondly, I would like to lessen bad action from the previous life. And how do I do that?
user13150's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
83 views

How do we explain that some humans require far more evidence for some claims than others? [closed]

Tell people that God says something and they believe. Tell people that the paint is wet and they have to touch to believe. If I ask people if God really made http://thegoodlordabove.com/god-talks-...
user4951's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
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Statistically, what are the determinants of which particular religion someone will follow?

I can look at data on smokers and recent ex-smokers to identify what variables correlate with success in quitting, or relapse. I can adjust for covariates, or leave the analysis unadjusted. I did a ...
Arun's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
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Islam and participation in acts of political violence

This is currently a hot political topic, but what does the science say? I was thinking that a good experiment would take groups of people, and match them for alternate explanations: Age, gender, ...
Arnon Weinberg's user avatar
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1 answer
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Environmental factors that predict theism

Are there any environmental factors which can predict atheism or theism?
Jack Maddington's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
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Effect of enactive cognition on gender

I'm doing a PhD in archaeology and assyriology (cuneiform writing; Sumerian language), exploring the process of gendering that deities underwent during the 3rd millennium BC. I'm looking into using ...
Monica Palmero's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
113 views

Is there any objective proof of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs [duplicate]

Abraham Maslow posited a whole lot of things in the theory that is called Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Among the things that he posited was the progression from more "basic needs" like physiological ...
Krishnaraj Rao's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
279 views

Are polytheistic society more peaceful than monotheistic ones? [closed]

News last day have brought some thoughts in my mind, if a religion is a good choice for peace and when yes which one. My conclusion was at this step, that maybe polytheistic religions are more ...
Sider's user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
302 views

Do people who lose their faith tend to replace it with other non-evidence-based reasoning?

I was watching this talk by Phil Plait given at TAM(The Amazing Meeting) 8. You can find a partial transcript here. It will help provide some context. In the talk he makes the following claim: ...
I like Cake's user avatar
12 votes
4 answers
1k views

Can scientific evidence support concepts of the soul?

In some spiritual premises, the soul is said to belong to the Almighty. Religions (Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism) all talk about cleansing our inner being because only when it's pure, its actual ...
user3747's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
351 views

Looking for happines in marriage survey according to living/not living together before marriage

Do you know any research/survey results comparing how happy do people feel in marriage (after a few years) comparing marriages who lived together before marrying and living separately? There are ...
Michał Wróbel's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
5k views

Is there a psychological explanation for people being 'overcome by the Holy Spirit'?

I am a scientist by nature, and I don't believe at all in God or any form of spirituality or the Holy Spirit (of course). However, it does confuse me as to how some people genuinely do seem to be ...
ODP's user avatar
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12 votes
1 answer
412 views

Is religiousness a genetically heritable feature?

I know that parent beliefs have very strong influence on child, but is it possible that genetic factor also play a role? I doubt that the content of any religion could be heritable through genes nor ...
Marta Cz-C's user avatar
22 votes
5 answers
3k views

Why are people inclined to praise or fear the unknown?

Human beings are inclined to "praise" the unknown, and are often afraid of the unknown. This inclination has led to the creation of mythology and many gods. To this date we are still carrying this ...
Özgür's user avatar
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