Perceiving Self, Others, and Events Through a Religious Lens: Mahayana Buddhists vs. Christians.

ABSTRACT: Are all religions essentially the same? Are believers of different religions heading in the same mental direction? To answer these questions from a sociopsychological perspective, we compared social sensitivity and causal attribution styles between Mahayana Buddhists, who practice unbiased love and compassion toward every being, and Christians, who pursue a union with God. Despite a similar cultural background, sex ratio, age distribution, socioeconomic status, and fluid intelligence level, these two religious groups in Taiwan showed opposite tendencies when inferring the mental states of others - as religiosity increased, the theory of mind ability increased in Mahayana Buddhists but decreased in Christians. Furthermore, these two religious groups showed opposite tendencies of attribution

SUBMITTER: Huang TR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6373579 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature