Cognitive disfluency reduces religious belief across all conviction levels

Evidence

We induced participants to experience what psychologists call perceptual disfluency. This happens when information is difficult to process or understand. When information doesn’t flow smoothly through the cognitive system, people are more reflective and skeptical. They are also more eager to question and learn. Not surprisingly, many studies show that disfluency—for example, presenting information in a difficult-to-read font—improves performance in tasks that involve analytic thinking, including syllogistic reasoning as well as the Cognitive Reflection Task discussed earlier. We randomly assigned participants to read our questionnaire in a typical, easy-to-process font (sample) or a difficult-to-process font (sample). The experience of disfluency also produced a dip in belief in God, angels and the Devil. Interestingly, we also found that analytic thinking reduced belief at every level of prior religious conviction. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 605

In another experiment, we relied on a more subtle method to encourage analytic thinking. We induced participants to experience what psychologists call perceptual disfluency. This happens when information is difficult to process or understand. When information doesn’t flow smoothly through the cognitive system, people are more reflective and skeptical. They are also more eager to question and learn. Not surprisingly, many studies show that disfluency—for example, presenting information in a difficult-to-read font—improves performance in tasks that involve analytic thinking, including syllogistic reasoning as well as the Cognitive Reflection Task discussed earlier. We randomly assigned participants to read our questionnaire in a typical, easy-to-process font (sample) or a difficult-to-process font (sample). The experience of disfluency also produced a dip in belief in God, angels and the Devil. Interestingly, we also found that analytic thinking reduced belief at every level of prior religious conviction. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 605

Categorization

• XREF: Picks up the Cognitive Reflection Task discussion from earlier in the book and the dual-process (intuitive vs analytic) framework underlying the Big God argument.
• QUESTION: If analytic thinking reduces belief at every level of conviction, what does that suggest about how analytic-minded religious believers sustain faith — elaborative rationalization, compartmentalization, or reliance on the other ‘flames’ Norenzayan lists in the next paragraph?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 605