In the name of God: How children and adults judge agents who act for religious versus secular reasons.

ABSTRACT: Many people are guided by religious beliefs, but judgments of religiously and secularly motivated individuals remain unclear. We investigated reasoning about religiously versus secularly motivated characters among 5- to 10-year-olds and adults. In Study 1, theist and non-theist children reported similar attitudes toward theists; however, large differences emerged between theist and non-theist adults. Study 2 obtained similar results using a continuous, rather than forced choice, measure of preference. Additionally, Studies 2-3 tested two explanations for the stronger influence of religious background on adults' versus children's responses. Study 2 did not find strong evidence for the theistic majority account, which posits that the greater perceived prevalence of theists as compared with n

SUBMITTER: Heiphetz L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4727248 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature