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Are We Taking More Risks In The Name Of Divinity?
People prompted to think of God make significantly riskier decisions whether or not they are religious. This was the outcome of a series of studies published by the researchers from Stanford University in 2015. There are indeed many references in the Bible to God’s power to protect.
At the time, participants indicated how likely they were to engage in a range of risky behaviours related to ethical dilemmas or social risk. The effects seemed clear. Those who had been primed to think of God were significantly more likely to consider engaging in risky behaviours, as long as these did not involve an ethical transgression. Moreover, participants in the “God-prime” condition perceived significantly less risk in all of these behaviours, as if thinking of God really had reduced the sense of threat.
A few weeks ago, Will Gervais from the University of Kentucky and colleagues repeated two of the original 2015 experiments in exact detail, but with one crucial difference. They recruited a substantially larger sample of over a thousand participants.
Their study revealed no evidence that being primed to think of God had the power to make people choose riskier behaviours. There was no effect even when the authors ran a mini meta-analysis combining their own findings with those of the original publication.
At the time, participants indicated how likely they were to engage in a range of risky behaviours related to ethical dilemmas or social risk. The effects seemed clear. Those who had been primed to think of God were significantly more likely to consider engaging in risky behaviours, as long as these did not involve an ethical transgression. Moreover, participants in the “God-prime” condition perceived significantly less risk in all of these behaviours, as if thinking of God really had reduced the sense of threat.
A few weeks ago, Will Gervais from the University of Kentucky and colleagues repeated two of the original 2015 experiments in exact detail, but with one crucial difference. They recruited a substantially larger sample of over a thousand participants.
Their study revealed no evidence that being primed to think of God had the power to make people choose riskier behaviours. There was no effect even when the authors ran a mini meta-analysis combining their own findings with those of the original publication.