Department of Psychology, University of Virginia.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Psychol Sci. 2020 Mar;31(3):280-292. doi: 10.1177/0956797619895286. Epub 2020 Jan 28.
Religion shapes the nature of intergroup conflict, but conflict may also shape religion. Here, we report four multimethod studies that reveal the impact of conflict on religious belief: The threat of warfare and intergroup tensions increase the psychological need for order and obedience to rules, which leads people to view God as more punitive. Studies 1 ( = 372) and 2 ( = 911) showed that people's concern about conflict correlates with belief in a punitive God. Study 3 ( = 1,065) found that experimentally increasing the salience of conflict increases people's perceptions of the importance of a punitive God, and this effect is mediated by people's support for a tightly regulated society. Study 4 showed that the severity of warfare predicted and preceded worldwide fluctuations in punitive-God belief between 1800 CE and 2000 CE. Our findings illustrate how conflict can change the nature of religious belief and add to a growing literature showing how cultural ecologies shape psychology.
宗教塑造了群体间冲突的性质，但冲突也可能塑造宗教。在这里，我们报告了四项多方法研究，揭示了冲突对宗教信仰的影响：战争和群体间紧张局势的威胁增加了对秩序和遵守规则的心理需求，这导致人们认为上帝更加严厉。研究 1（n=372）和 2（n=911）表明，人们对冲突的关注与对严厉上帝的信仰相关。研究 3（n=1065）发现，实验中增加冲突的凸显性会增加人们对严厉上帝的重要性的认知，而这种效果是由人们对严格监管社会的支持所介导的。研究 4 表明，战争的严重程度预测并先于 1800 年至 2000 年期间全球严厉上帝信仰的波动。我们的研究结果说明了冲突如何改变宗教信仰的性质，并为越来越多的表明文化生态如何塑造心理的文献增添了内容。
