A new study suggests that reminding someone of their religious beliefs could help quell hostile urges.
Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu participants were exposed to either threatening experiences (such as thinking about their own death or failing at an academic assignment) or not. They were then given a chance to judge and assign punishments for transgressors, criminals and worldview critics. However, some were first reminded of their religious beliefs by a simple question (“which religious beliefs system do you identify with?”).
Across nine different experiments totalling 901 participants, the threat normally caused more punitive reactions, but the religious belief reminder reversed this effect and caused less punitive reactions instead.
Original research paper published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in September, 2014.
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