Believers' estimates of God's beliefs are more egocentric than estimates of other people's beliefs.

ABSTRACT: People often reason egocentrically about others' beliefs, using their own beliefs as an inductive guide. Correlational, experimental, and neuroimaging evidence suggests that people may be even more egocentric when reasoning about a religious agent's beliefs (e.g., God). In both nationally representative and more local samples, people's own beliefs on important social and ethical issues were consistently correlated more strongly with estimates of God's beliefs than with estimates of other people's beliefs (Studies 1-4). Manipulating people's beliefs similarly influenced estimates of God's beliefs but did not as consistently influence estimates of other people's beliefs (Studies 5 and 6). A final neuroimaging study demonstrated a clear convergence in neural activity when reasoning about one'

SUBMITTER: Epley N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2787468 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature