In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion by Scott Atran

Author:Scott Atran
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Tags: Oxford University Press, ISBN-13: 9780195178036
Published: 2011-08-14T16:00:17+00:00

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R I T U A L P A S S I 0 N S

severe bleeding from the boy's brain and specialized surgeons struggle to reattach

the boy's severed feet. After exposure to the stories, and before being tested for recall, half the subjects were given either a placebo pill or a drug (propranolol) that blocks the effects of adrenaline. The placebo and drug groups recalled the uneventful story equally well. Only the placebo group, however, remembered the emotional story more accurately than the uneventful one. (Similar effects are reported with patients suffering from amygdala damage, McGaugh et al. 1 995.) Our hypothesis was that stressful events associated with existential anxieties

(e.g., death) not only deeply affect how people remember events but also their religious coloring of those events. We first controlled for religious background and measured for religious identification. Then we primed each of three groups of college students with a different story (see table 7 . 1 ): Cahill et al.'s uneventful story (neutral prime), Cahill et al.'s stressful story (death prime), and another uneventful story whose event-structure matched the other two stories but which included a prayer scene (religious prime). Afterward, each group of subjects read a reprint

from a New York Times article (2 Oct. 2001) whose lead ran: "Researchers at

Table 7.1 . Three stories with matching events used to prime feelings of religiosity:

Neutral (uneventful) , Death (stressful) , Religious (prayer scene)

Neutral

Death

Religious

A mother and her son are

A mother and her son are

A mother and her son are

leaving home in the

leaving home in the

leaving home in the

morning.

morning.

morning.

2 She is taking him to visit

She is taking him to visit

She is taking him to visit

his father's workplace.

his father's workplace.

his father's workplace.

3 The father is a laboratory

The father is a laboratory

The father is a laboratory

technician at Victory

technician at Victory

technician at Victory

Memorial Hospital.

Memorial Hospital.

Memorial Hospital.

4 They check before crossing They check before crossing They check before crossing

a busy road.

a busy road.

a busy road.

5 While walking along,

While crossing the road,

While walking along, the

the boy sees some wrecked the boy is caught in a

boy sees a well-dressed

cars in a junk yard, which

terrible accident, which

man stop by a homeless

he finds interesting.

critically injures him.

woman, falling on his

knees before her, weeping.

6 At the hospital, the staff

At the hospital, the staff

At the hospital, the boy's

are preparing for a practice prepares the emergency

father shows him around

disaster drill, which the

room, to which the boy is

his lab. The boy listens

boy will watch.

rushed.

politely, but his thoughts

are elsewhere.

7 An image from a brain scan An image from a brain scan An image from a brain

machine used in the drill

machine used in a trauma

scan that he sees reminds

attracts the boy's interest.

situation shows severe

him of something in the

bleeding in the boy's brain. homeless woman's face.

W A V E S 0 F P A S S I 0 N

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Table 7.1 . (Continued)

Neutral

Death

Religious

8 All morning long, a surgical All morning long, a surgical On his way around the

team practices the disaster team struggles to save the

hospital, the boy glances

drill procedures.

boy's life.

into the hospital's chapel,

where he sees the well-

dressed man sitting alone.

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