This has been evidenced by their brain scans

Mar 18, 2009 10:03 GMT  ·  By
Religious people are unlikely to secondd-guess themselves, even if they are wrong
   Religious people are unlikely to secondd-guess themselves, even if they are wrong

According to a number of recent scientific investigations, people who believe devoutly are less likely than non-believers to second-guess themselves when answering questions in a test, even though their answers have been wrong. They also display lower brain activities in areas of the cortex associated with anxiety. On the other hand, non-believers are very likely to become anxious and second-guess themselves after responding to queries, as they don't leave the end results up to a higher power to decide.

“Religion offers an interpretative framework to understand the world. It lets you know when to act, how to act, and what to do in specific situation. It provides a kind of blueprint on how to interact with the world,” University of Toronto in Scarborough (UT) neuroscientist Michael Inzlicht, who has been the lead researcher of one of the new studies, explains. He argues that religion, of all kinds, as well as rooted belief systems that do not necessarily involve the worshiping of gods allow individuals not to become too stressed with their decisions, as they are convinced that they have just fulfilled the wishes of whatever god they believe in.

For his experiment, Inzlicht has analyzed brain activities in more than 50 university students, out of which most were Christians. However, he selected participants from different backgrounds, and Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and atheists were also represented by sufficient numbers. To record their brain activity, the investigator used dozens of electrodes placed on the brain, which fed an electroencephalogram (EEG) machine. The target of the research has been the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), long associated with regulating the levels of anxiety in an individual.

One of the statements the participants had to rate was “I would support a war if my religion supported it.” Sadly, most fervent believers answered “Yes” without hesitation, which seems to explain the great degree of turmoil in the world at this point. This is fundamentally wrong, however most religious people, regardless of their gods, answered positively. On the other hand, atheists were more likely to second-guess their initial response and to eventually answer “No” or “Maybe.”

“It's a very provocative finding and it is consistent with a lot of other things we know about religion,” University of British Columbia in Vancouver psychologits Ara Norenzayan, who has not been part of the current research, adds.