Priming analytical thinking via a statue causes an immediate religious belief dip.

Evidence

Religious beliefs and rituals arose as an evolutionary by-product of ordinary cognitive functions that preceded religion. These cognitive functions gave rise to religious intuitions—for example, that minds and bodies are separate entities and that the former can exist without the latter. These intuitions support widely held religious beliefs and related practices, such as gods, spirits, and souls of various types and characteristics. Once that happened, the stage was set for rapid cultural evolution—nongenetic, socially transmitted changes in beliefs and behaviors—that eventually led to large societies with Big Gods. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 44 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Analytic thinking style independently predicts lower religious belief.; Ordinary cognition, not special modules, produces religious beliefs — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 44; Perceptual processing difficulty itself triggers religious skepticism. (+2 more)

Related

• Analytic thinking style independently predicts lower religious belief. (similarity 0.91)
• Priming analytic thought reduces expressed belief in God (similarity 0.86)
• Priming intuitive thinking temporarily raises belief in God. (similarity 0.84)
• Religious disbelief is linked to a stable analytic cognitive style. (similarity 0.83)
• Ordinary cognition, not special modules, produces religious beliefs (similarity 0.83)
• Religious primes fail to affect atheists, disproving a purely ideomotor account (similarity 0.82)
• Inducing a merely analytic thinking style lowers stated belief in God. (similarity 0.81)
• Intuitive thinkers should be more religious and analytic thinkers more doubtful (similarity 0.81)
• Religious disbelief correlates with analytic thinking independent of education, intelligence, or demographics (similarity 0.81)
• Studying nonbelievers’ responses to religious primes requires nonconscious priming and independent belief measurement. (similarity 0.80)
• Habitual analytic thinking produces and deepens religious doubt (similarity 0.79)
• Atheists’ unresponsiveness to God primes rules out ideomotor explanations (similarity 0.79)
• Religious belief rests on ordinary cognition that predates motivational influence. (similarity 0.78)
• Cognitive disfluency reduces religious belief across all conviction levels (similarity 0.78)
• Religious belief is a by-product of cognitive predispositions, not an evolved adaptation (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Perceptual processing difficulty itself triggers religious skepticism. #expands (0.88)
• Ordinary cognition, not special modules, produces religious beliefs #expands (0.85) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 44
• Existential worries intensify religious belief and their appeasement diminishes it #corroborates (0.80)
• Implicit religious priming only affects believers, not committed atheists #qualifies (0.75)