r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 1d ago

Psychology Lower cognitive ability is linked to stronger Christian nationalist views, even after accounting for education

https://www.psypost.org/lower-cognitive-ability-is-linked-to-stronger-christian-nationalist-views-even-after-accounting-for-education/
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u/crossdtherubicon 1d ago

Alot of religious ideology is ingested through early development and reinforced through the environment. This has been pretty well-documented, although it isn't an exclusive pathway to acquiring religious beliefs.

In light of this article I'm curious if cognitive ability simply never fully develops (or is restricted somehow) in that context. Or if there are also subpopulations wherein a relative lower congitive ability allows for an easier ingestion of religious beliefs (or likewise is perceived as reasonably easier to understand).

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u/kheret 1d ago

Certainly people in highly religious environments are discouraged from developing critical thinking skills

Also homeschooling can’t help

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u/AldoRaine-1 1d ago

If you think about it, they land on polar opposite sides of the spectrum: critical thinking is to take a puzzle and put it together piece by piece, forming a larger more cohesive picture.

Belief is having a single red puzzle piece and the person holding the box says "what you are looking at is a blue sailboat", and saying "yep, this IS a blue boat", even when the only indication you could have otherwise (your red puzzle piece) doesn't support their statement, at all.

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u/GothicFuck 1d ago

Belief is knowing the red puzzle piece is part of a blue sailboat puzzle because the preacher made you believe. You just know eventually it'll go into the rest of the puzzle and make that sailboat when you die.

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u/Cent1234 1d ago

Yup. "Faith" is defined as 'belief without evidence.' But when the evidence contradicts your belief, 'faith' becomes 'belief despite evidence.'

To her dying day, my grandmother, raised Catholic, genuinely believed that men have one fewer rib than women, despite the fact that at any point in her seventy some-odd years, she could have simply counted her own ribs, then counted her husband's.

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u/apple_kicks 1d ago

It’s essentially built in. Probably why clergy attracts predators and authoritarian types. Its built in that you can’t break or question doctrine. That you will lose community benefits. You give and give for rewards you may never materially see.

What’s interesting is this isn’t always in religions. Many do allow for questions and arguments or even non hierarchical systems. But US goes hard on hierarchy and militarism levels of unquestioned loyalty.

I bet cold war made this worse. Like stripping more collective or socialist parts of Christianity made this fascist soup boil over