The relationship of religious involvement to a variety of indicators of cognitive ability and achievement in college students.

A total of 635 undergraduates at a small, competitive, secular, liberal arts university in the Northeast were administered a brief questionnaire in which they reported anonymously their degree of religiousness, their Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores, and their grade point average (GPA). Religiousness was negatively related to ability as measured by SAT, and not related to achievement, as measured by GPA. The students' capacity to maximize their potential was measured by the difference (in standard score) between GPA and SAT, and revealed a strong, positive connection with degree of religiousness. A conceptual rationale for the diverse findings is presented by the author.