Belief in belief: Even atheists in secular countries show intuitive preferences favoring religious belief.

ABSTRACT: We find evidence of belief in belief-intuitive preferences for religious belief over atheism, even among atheist participants-across eight comparatively secular countries. Religion is a cross-cultural human universal, yet explicit markers of religiosity have rapidly waned in large parts of the world in recent decades. We explored whether intuitive religious influence lingers, even among nonbelievers in largely secular societies. We adapted a classic experimental philosophy task to test for this intuitive belief in belief among people in eight comparatively nonreligious countries: Canada, China, Czechia, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam (total N = 3,804). Our analyses revealed strong evidence that 1) people intuitively favor religious belief over

SUBMITTER: Gervais WM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12002237 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature