Reduced mentalizing capacity directly lowers belief in God

Evidence

Reduced mentalizing was associated with lower levels of belief in God, even after controlling for various factors that are related to religious belief. Mentalizing minds are prepared to be believing minds. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 80

Categorization

• XREF: Provides the cognitive-mechanism foundation for the Big God hypothesis: the omniscient-agent perception Rodrigues operates under depends on intact mentalizing.