1 Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.
2 College of Business, KAIST.
Psychol Sci. 2018 May;29(5):723-737. doi: 10.1177/0956797617743017. Epub 2018 Apr 6.
Even without direct evidence of God's existence, about half of the world's population believes in God. Although previous research has found that people arrive at such beliefs intuitively instead of analytically, relatively little research has aimed to understand what experiences encourage or legitimate theistic belief systems. Using cross-cultural correlational and experimental methods, we investigated whether the experience of inspiration encourages a belief in God. Participants who dispositionally experience more inspiration, were randomly assigned to relive or have an inspirational experience, or reported such experiences to be more inspirational all showed stronger belief in God. These effects were specific to inspiration (instead of adjacent affective experiences) and a belief in God (instead of other empirically unverifiable claims). Being inspired by someone or something (but not inspired to do something) offers a spiritually transcendent experience that elevates belief in God, in part because it makes people feel connected to something beyond themselves.
即使没有上帝存在的直接证据，世界上大约有一半的人口仍然相信上帝。虽然之前的研究发现，人们是凭直觉而不是分析得出这样的信仰，但是很少有研究旨在理解是什么样的经历鼓励或认可有神论信仰体系。本研究使用跨文化相关和实验方法，调查灵感的体验是否会鼓励人们相信上帝。参与者在性格上体验到更多灵感，被随机分配去重温或获得灵感体验，或者报告说他们的灵感体验更具启发性，他们都表现出更强的上帝信仰。这些影响是针对灵感（而不是相邻的情感体验）和对上帝的信仰（而不是其他未经证实的经验性主张）的。被某人或某事所启发（而不是被启发去做某事）提供了一种精神上超越的体验，从而提升了对上帝的信仰，部分原因是它让人们感到与超越自身的某种东西联系在一起。
