Cultural differences in religious belief

This event is part of a series of Psychology seminars that regularly occurs during the Autumn and Spring terms.

Two cross-cultural studies investigated three kinds of cultural differences: religious belief, religious dialectical thinking, and the relation between thinking style and religious belief. Previous studies have shown that Easterners have stronger karma beliefs (retribution) and are more dialectical thinkers than Westerners. Furthermore, while a negative correlation has generally been reported between analytical thinking and religiosity (Pennycook et al., 2012), Majima (2015) found that this was not the case for Japanese individuals.

British, French, and Japanese participants took part in Experiment 1, a web survey. Participants completed questionnaires on religiosity (pro-religiosity, divine protection, and retribution), anti-religiosity, and thinking style (preference for intuitive thinking [PIT], preference for effortful thinking [PET], actively open-minded thinking [AOT], and close-minded thinking [CMT]).

Individuals who agreed with both religiosity and anti-religiosity were considered religious dialectical thinkers. Japanese participants were more likely to be religious dialectical thinkers than Westerners. Religious beliefs among British and French participants were suppressed by AOT, whereas those among Japanese participants were enhanced by PIT.

Experiment 2 examined whether these differences reflected Eastern–Western or monotheistic–polytheistic differences. Participants were American Christians, American non-religious individuals, Filipino Christians, Malaysian Muslims, Japanese Buddhists, and Japanese non-religious individuals. The method was similar to Experiment 1. Religious belief scores were lower among non-religious groups, but the higher level of religious dialectical thinking among Japanese participants was not replicated. AOT suppressed religious beliefs among American Christians, American non-religious individuals, and Filipino Christians, but not among Malaysian Muslims, Japanese Buddhists, or Japanese non-religious individuals.

These findings suggest that the suppression of religious belief by analytical thinking is domain-specific, particularly affecting Christians and those influenced by Christianity.