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Perceiving Self, Others, and Events Through a Religious Lens: Mahayana Buddhists vs. Christians.


ABSTRACT: Are all religions essentially the same? Are believers of different religions heading in the same mental direction? To answer these questions from a sociopsychological perspective, we compared social sensitivity and causal attribution styles between Mahayana Buddhists, who practice unbiased love and compassion toward every being, and Christians, who pursue a union with God. Despite a similar cultural background, sex ratio, age distribution, socioeconomic status, and fluid intelligence level, these two religious groups in Taiwan showed opposite tendencies when inferring the mental states of others - as religiosity increased, the theory of mind ability increased in Mahayana Buddhists but decreased in Christians. Furthermore, these two religious groups showed opposite tendencies of attributional style - as religiosity increased, self-serving bias decreased in Buddhists but increased in Christians. These marked religiosity-dependent, sociopsychological effects suggest that different religions may shape or attract their followers who are moving in quite distinct mental directions.

SUBMITTER: Huang TR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6373579 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Perceiving Self, Others, and Events Through a Religious Lens: Mahayana Buddhists vs. Christians.

Huang Tsung-Ren TR   Wang Yi-Hao YH  

Frontiers in psychology 20190206


Are all religions essentially the same? Are believers of different religions heading in the same mental direction? To answer these questions from a sociopsychological perspective, we compared social sensitivity and causal attribution styles between Mahayana Buddhists, who practice unbiased love and compassion toward every being, and Christians, who pursue a union with God. Despite a similar cultural background, sex ratio, age distribution, socioeconomic status, and fluid intelligence level, thes  ...[more]

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