Figure 2 - uploaded by Joseph A Bulbulia
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The relation between religious zeal and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activity: event-related potentials for (A) participants low in religious zeal and (B) participants high in religious zeal, (C) error-related negativities (ERNs) for people high and low in religious zeal, and (D) illustration of the neural generator for the ERN in the ACC, as determined by source localization. Image taken from Inzlicht et al. (2009), reproduced with permission.
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... religious conviction is associated with less distress, then we should find that the more people believe, the lower their ERN. And, as shown in Figure 2, this is precisely what we found. The more willing people were to endorse fervent statements about their religious belief, the lower their error-related response. ...
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... Relatedly, different views have been proposed on how the relation between religiosity and ACC conflict activity should be interpreted; whereas Inzlicht et al. (2011) suggest that ACC activity in this context reflects error distress, Schjoedt and Bulbulia (2011) argue that the interpretation of ACC activity as reflecting purely cognitive conflict sensitivity is more parsimonious. We believe this discussion partly hinges upon the operationalisation of 'conflict'. ...
... Such a task has much higher ecological validity than the Stroop task that we employed in the current study following the work by Inzlicht et al. (2009). Similarly, the observed reduction of activity in religious believers' DLPC and ACC while listening to a charismatic religious authority (Schjoedt and Bulbulia, 2011), may specifically depend on the religious content of the speech (and may disappear when the same religious authority would talk about public transport or gardening). It is thus important to do justice to the subjective nature of religious practices and experiences, when studying these topics. ...
In the current preregistered fMRI study, we investigated the relationship between religiosity and behavioral and neural mechanisms of conflict processing, as a conceptual replication of the study by Inzlicht et al. (2009). Participants (N=193) performed a gender-Stroop task and afterwards completed standardized measures to assess their religiosity. As expected, the task induced cognitive conflict at the behavioral level and at a neural level this was reflected in increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). However, individual differences in religiosity were not related to performance on the Stroop task as measured in accuracy and interference effects, nor to neural markers of response conflict (correct responses vs. errors) or informational conflict (congruent vs. incongruent stimuli). Overall, we obtained moderate to strong evidence in favor of the null hypotheses that religiosity is unrelated to cognitive conflict sensitivity. We discuss the implications for the neuroscience of religion and emphasize the importance of designing studies that more directly implicate religious concepts and behaviors in an ecologically valid manner.
... Relatedly, different views have been proposed on how the relation between religiosity and ACC conflict activity should be interpreted; whereas Inzlicht, Tullett, and Good (2011) suggest that ACC activity in this context reflects error distress, Schjoedt and Bulbulia (2011) argue that the interpretation of ACC activity as reflecting purely cognitive conflict sensitivity is more parsimonious. We believe this discussion partly hinges upon the operationalisation of 'conflict'. ...
... An effect for informational conflict should be reflected in a relationship between religiosity and the strength of the incongruent-congruent Stroop contrast in the fMRI data. Schjoedt and Bulbulia (2011), for instance, indeed seem to interpret Inzlicht et al.'s results as religious believers' inattention to conflict monitoring. In everyday life, both sources of conflict detection could play a role in the maintenance of religious beliefs, e.g., when a believer simply does not detect the incongruency between different sources of information or when he / she fails to suppress an intuitive but objectively incorrect answer. ...
... Such a task has much higher ecological validity than the Stroop task that we employed in the current study following the work by Inzlicht et al. (2009). Similarly, the observed reduction of activity in religious believers' DLPC and ACC while listening to a charismatic religious authority (Schjoedt & Bulbulia, 2011), may specifically depend on the religious content of the speech (and may disappear when the same religious authority would talk about public transport or gardening). It is thus important to do justice to the subjective nature of religious practices and experiences, when studying these topics. ...
In the current preregistered fMRI study, we investigated the relationship between religiosity and behavioral and neural mechanisms of conflict processing, as a conceptual replication of the study by Inzlicht et al. (2009). Participants (N = 193) performed a gender-Stroop task and afterwards completed standardized measures to assess their religiosity. As expected, the task induced cognitive conflict at the behavioral level and at a neural level this was reflected in increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). However, individual differences in religiosity were not related to performance on the Stroop task as measured in accuracy and interference effects, nor to neural markers of response conflict (correct responses vs. errors) or informational conflict (congruent vs. incongruent stimuli). Overall, we obtained moderate to strong evidence in favor of the null hypotheses that religiosity is unrelated to cognitive conflict sensitivity. We discuss the implications for the neuroscience of religion and emphasize the importance of designing studies that more directly implicate religious concepts and behaviors in an ecologically valid manner.
... Indeed, the increased ACC activation as a function of conflict detection during base-rate neglect reported by De Neys et al. (2008) was localized to the dorsal portion of the ACC, suggesting a more cognitive and less emotional source of activation (Bush et al., 2000). However, it may be the case that the relation between religiosity and ACC function is dynamic and bidirectional, not only because those who have lower ACC function are more likely to be religious, but also because increased religiosity may subsequently further inhibit ACC function (for further discussion, see Bulbulia & Schjoedt, 2011; Inzlicht, Tullett, & Good, 2011b; Schjoedt & Bulbulia, 2011). Clearly, future work will be required to further elucidate the various cognitive and affective factors that lead to, and result from, religious belief and participation. ...
Recent research has indicated a negative relation between the propensity for analytic reasoning and religious beliefs and practices. Here, we propose conflict detection as a mechanism underlying this relation, on the basis of the hypothesis that more-analytic people are less religious, in part, because they are more sensitive to conflicts between immaterial religious beliefs and beliefs about the material world. To examine cognitive conflict sensitivity, we presented problems containing stereotypes that conflicted with base-rate probabilities in a task with no religious content. In three studies, we found evidence that religiosity is negatively related to conflict detection during reasoning. Independent measures of analytic cognitive style also positively predicted conflict detection. The present findings provide evidence for a mechanism potentially contributing to the negative association between analytic thinking and religiosity, and more generally, they illustrate the insights to be gained from integrating individual-difference factors and contextual factors to investigate analytic reasoning.
