Religious people less anxious, brain activity shows

[tinrobot]

If the deeply devout seem less self-doubting than others, perhaps it's because religion helps them shrug off mistakes. So say researchers who found religious people exhibit lower activity than non-believers in a brain region linked to anxiety when erring on a simple test.

"Religion offers an interpretative framework to understand the world. It lets you know when to act, how to act, and what to do in specific situation," says

Michael Inzlicht, a neuroscientist at the University of Toronto, Scarborough, who led the new study. "It provides a kind of blueprint on how to interact with the world."

Religion – and perhaps other strongly held belief systems – buffer against second-guessing decisions, he says.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16789-religious-people-less-anxious-brain-activity-shows.html

[Jokerman]

1. GWB didn't second guess or express any self doubt.

Yet he was wrong on just about everything.

Personally, I'll accept anxiousness that may come with the ability to ask questions.

[BlooInBloo]

2. Sounds about right...

The only question is: Is that a feature, or a bug?

:rofl:

[fascisthunter]

3. well... when you turn off your brain...

of course there's going to be less brain activity. That's why many feel religion is a crutch and unproductive in dealing with reality. It may be comforting but so is getting loaded or high.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. Second-guessing is a survival trait -

when it comes to important decisions.

The fastest way to walk from point A to point B is along the railroad bridge.

Second guessing suggests, maybe the FASTEST way is not the BEST way.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ZombieHorde]

6. I wonder how opium affects anxious feelings.

Perhaps there is more truth to that saying than I realized.

[maxsolomon]

7. Vipassana Meditation lessens my anxieties

but it's not exactly religion.

[Calmador]

8. Hurray for me!

G-d = Reality

[ZombieHorde]

10. G minus d equals Reality? What does that mean? nt

[laconicsax]

24. It's that new math. n/t

[Strong Atheist]

23. Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[sam sarrha]

9. perhaps there is just less brain activity,,

[PassingFair]

11. George Shaw knew this a hundred years ago.....

"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one."


George Bernard Shaw

[frogmarch]

12. "Putting it all in god's hands" soothes

believers' anxieties. At least this was true for my mom. No matter what horrible things befell our family, she trusted god to see us through. :eyes:

[DeSwiss]

13. "Religious people less anxious, brain activity shows...."

...but when one reads the article more fully, we begin to see a likely reason why:

Inzlicht's team tested 50 university students from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. Christians made up most participants, but his team also tested Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and atheists. With a technique that gauges brain activity via dozens of electrodes on the scalp called electroencephalography (EEG), Inzlicht's team focused on action in a small brain area called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).

"When it's fired, the response engendered is 'uh oh, pay attention, something is amiss here'," he says (see also Magic reveals the brain's response to the impossible).

People with anxiety disorders tend to show high activity in this region, and drugs that treat their symptoms calm brain activity in the ACC.

Blue, no, yellow!

Volunteers took a simple test that other neuroscientists have used to measure ACC activity. On a monitor, subjects see a colour spelled out in letters that either correspond to or contradict the meaning of the word – for example, red spelled out in red letters or blue spelled out in yellow letters, for instance. Volunteers must press a button to indicate the colour of the letters.

The students with strong religious beliefs, as measured by their agreement with statements such as "My religion is better than others" or "I would support a war if my religion supported it", exhibited less ACC activation than students with less fervent beliefs. Tests with another group of students, who were asked how strongly they believed or disbelieved in God, came to a similar conclusion. Even after accounting for self-esteem, intelligence and other personality traits, Inzlicht's team found that religious devotion predicted volunteers' ACC activity.

Blissful beliefs?

One explanation is that people with a genetic predisposition to reduced ACC activity gravitate toward religion. "It's possible that if you're born with a certain kind of brain, you're predisposed to religion," Inzlicht says.

- So it would seem upon further reading of this article, that what it is essentially saying about religious people is that maybe those who are born with a genetic predisposition for "reduced ACC activity" are also more credulous about matters religious and therefore are not predisposed, nor do they question religion's more obvious cognitive dissonance(s). Hmmmm.....

[greyl]

14. DeSwish. nt

[DeSwiss]

19. DeGreyl.....

[heidler1]

15. I agree, but to cut to the chase I still believe the key word is gullibility.

[DeSwiss]

20. {{{{{stage whisper}}}}}....

- ::::::::Me too, but I'm often told that I should try to be more civil. Meh. Well, at least this should give me about a month's worth of civility::::::::

[JerseygirlCT]

26. Well, that first way of measuring religious beliefs

sounds awfully weird to me, but that might explain why I'm pretty sure I would have been an outlier on this test!

[Deep13]

16. Perhaps the anxiety comes from the animosity from everyone else.

It says that the more fundy ones belief is, the less anxiety he or she has. True believers cannot be told they are wrong.

[Deep13]

17. dupe--deleted.

[Deep13]

18. Of course these finding do nothing to prove the reality of those beliefs.

Religion can be a source of all kinds of good things and still be based on a lie.

[Evoman]

21. Religious people have brain activity? Could have fooled me.

JUST KIDDING!! I had to make the joke.

[JerseygirlCT]

27. Couldn't resist, could you?

;)

[Odin2005]

22. That's because they don't use their brain.

[JerseygirlCT]

25. Only thing I could think when I read this

was, "boy, I guess I'd be in REALLY bad shape if I weren't religious, since I'm pretty good at anxiety and second-guessing as it is!" :)

[IndianaGreen]

28. Religious people have less brain activity

which is why they are less anxious.