Thiruchselvam Ravi, Gopi Yashoda, Kilekwang Leonard, Harper Jessica, Gross James J
Department of Psychology, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY, USA.
Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2017 Jun 1;12(6):956-964. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsx023.
Even in predominantly religious societies, there are substantial individual differences in religious commitment. Why is this? One possibility is that differences in social conformity (i.e. the tendency to think and behave as others do) underlie inclination towards religiosity. However, the link between religiosity and conformity has not yet been directly examined. In this study, we tested the notion that non-religious individuals show dampened social conformity, using both self-reported and neural (EEG-based ERPs) measures of sensitivity to others' influence. Non-religious vs religious undergraduate subjects completed an experimental task that assessed levels of conformity in a domain unrelated to religion (i.e. in judgments of facial attractiveness). Findings showed that, although both groups yielded to conformity pressures at the self-report level, non-religious individuals did not yield to such pressures in their neural responses. These findings highlight a novel link between religiosity and social conformity, and hold implications for prominent theories about the psychological functions of religion.
即使在以宗教为主导的社会中，宗教信仰程度也存在很大的个体差异。原因何在？一种可能性是，社会从众性（即像他人一样思考和行为的倾向）的差异是宗教倾向的基础。然而，宗教信仰与从众性之间的联系尚未得到直接检验。在本研究中，我们使用自我报告和基于脑电图的事件相关电位（EEG-based ERPs）这两种对他人影响的敏感度测量方法，来测试非宗教个体表现出较低社会从众性这一观点。非宗教与宗教本科学生完成了一项实验任务，该任务评估了在与宗教无关的领域（即对面部吸引力的判断）中的从众水平。研究结果表明，尽管两组在自我报告层面都受到了从众压力的影响，但非宗教个体在神经反应中并未受到此类压力的影响。这些发现凸显了宗教信仰与社会从众性之间的一种新联系，并对关于宗教心理功能的重要理论具有启示意义。
