Radek Kundt

Religious Cognition and Behaviour in Autism: The Role of Mentalizing

ABSTRACT Mentalizing, or theory of mind, has been argued to be critical for supporting religious beliefs and practices involving supernatural agents. As individuals with autism spectrum conditions have been found to have deficits in mentalizing, this raises the question as to how they may conceive of gods and behave in relation to gods. To examine this, we compared high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum conditions (HFA) to typically developing individuals across seven key aspects of religious cognition and behaviour: (a) strength of belief, (b) anthropomorphism of god concepts, (c) felt closeness toward the god, (d) prayer habits, (e) attraction to prayer, (f) efficacy of prayer, and (g) a sense of agency while praying. A battery of mentalizing tasks was administered to measure mentalizing ability, along with the Autism-Spectrum Quotient. As expected, typically developing subjects performed better than HFA subjects in the advanced mentalizing task. However, no statistically significant differences were found with first-order and second-order false belief tasks. In contrast to our predictions and previous research on the religiosity of HFA, we found very little differences between the groups in their religious cognition and behaviour. Moreover, the relationship between mentalizing ability and most of our measures of religious cognition and behaviour was weak and negative. Our data suggest that HFAs deficits in mentalizing appear to have only minimal impact on the way they interact and think about gods. We end the article by reevaluating the role mentalizing may have in religious cognition and behaviour.

Location, location, location: Effects of cross-religious primes on prosocial behaviour

ABSTRACT Priming with religious concepts is known to have a positive effect on prosocial behavior; however, the effects of religious primes associated with outgroups remain unknown. To explore this, we conducted a field experiment in a multicultural, multireligious setting (the island of Mauritius). Our design used naturally occurring, ecologically relevant contextual primes pertinent to everyday religious and secular life while maintaining full experimental control. We found that both ingroup and outgroup religious contexts increased generosity as measured by a donation task. In accordance with previous research, we also found an interaction between individual religiosity and the efficacy of the religious primes. We discuss these findings and their interpretation, and we suggest potential avenues for further research.

A Scientific Discipline: The Persistence of a Delusion?

In my response to Martin and Wiebes academic confession, I try to show that there is a major inconsistency in their argument. This inconsistency resides within their partial and therefore biased application of universal unconscious mechanisms that constrain the human mind, where the application should have been complete. Their argument should have been directed at all sciences or at science in general in order for it to be sound, and not particularly at Religious Studies. This would result in the argument that any scientific discipline is a delusion, which is an outcome Martin and Wiebe do not hold, as they make science a sine qua non for their own argument.

Music As a Sacred Cue? Effects of Religious Music on Moral Behavior

Religion can have an important influence in moral decision-making, and religious reminders may deter people from unethical behavior. Previous research indicated that religious contexts may increase prosocial behavior and reduce cheating. However, the perceptual-behavioral link between religious contexts and decision-making lacks thorough scientific understanding. This study adds to the current literature by testing the effects of purely audial religious symbols (instrumental music) on moral behavior across three different sites: Mauritius, the Czech Republic, and the USA. Participants were exposed to one of three kinds of auditory stimuli (religious, secular, or white noise), and subsequently were given a chance to dishonestly report on solved mathematical equations in order to increase their monetary reward. The results showed cross-cultural differences in the effects of religious music on moral behavior, as well as a significant interaction between condition and religiosity across all sites, suggesting that religious participants were more influenced by the auditory religious stimuli than non-religious participants. We propose that religious music can function as a subtle cue associated with moral standards via cultural socialization and ritual participation. Such associative learning can charge music with specific meanings and create sacred cues that influence normative behavior. Our findings provide preliminary support for this view, which we hope further research will investigate more closely.

Can predictive coding explain past experiences

In their target article, Taves and Asprem suggest disassembling religious experiences into events, and studying the formation and interpretation of religious experiences using the approach of cognitive science. We support such an approach and especially embrace using experimental methods to better understand how religious experiences can be generated. However, we are concerned with the feasibility of using first-person narratives to reconstruct “originatory events.” The study of unusual experiences has not been prominent in the cognitive science of religion (CSR), as the authors note, because of “the difficulties inherent in the use of first-person narratives.” Although Taves and Asprem try to address some of these difficulties (e.g., bias in recollecting past events), there is a host of remaining issues that might significantly impede the attempt to rehabilitate the first-person accounts as a prime data source for CSR. We identify and outline three crucial problems and suggest that clarifying these issues might advance the approach proposed by Taves and Asprem.

Big Gods in small places : the Random Allocation Game in Mauritius

ABSTRACT The relationship between religion and social behavior has been the subject of longstanding debates. Recent evolutionary models of religious morality propose that particular types of supernatural beliefs related to moralizing and punitive high gods will have observable effects on prosociality. We tested this hypothesis, comparing the effects of diverse religious beliefs, practices, and contexts among Hindus in Mauritius. We found that specific aspects of religious belief (related to moralizing gods) as well as religious practice (participation in high-intensity rituals) were significant predictors of prosocial behavior. These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of religious prosociality and have significant implications for the evolution of morality.