Religious-belief effects are testable through temporary thought-priming experiments

Evidence

A better way to answer these questions would be to rely on the gold standard of the scientific method: we could get conclusive answers if we designed experiments in which people are randomly assigned to “religion” or to a control condition, and then measure actual prosocial behavior in controlled conditions. While for obvious reasons we cannot randomly assign people to either believe in God or believe in nothing, or join a religion versus join a tennis club, there is a simpler strategy: we can prod people to temporarily think about God or about something else that is unrelated to God or religion. Then we could look at the effects of thinking about God on various behaviors of interest. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 133

Categorization

• QUESTION: The priming strategy assumes temporary thoughts of God mimic standing belief effects—a validity assumption worth probing against Norenzayan’s later caveats about nonbelievers.”
• XREF: connects to: Priming analytic thought reduces expressed belief in God — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 604; Studying nonbelievers’ responses to religious primes requires nonconscious priming and independent belief measurement.; Priming intuitive thinking temporarily raises belief in God. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 602 (+6 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Priming analytic thought reduces expressed belief in God — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 604; Studying nonbelievers’ responses to religious primes requires nonconscious priming and independent belief measurement.; Priming intuitive thinking temporarily raises belief in God. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 602 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Priming analytic thought reduces expressed belief in God #exemplifies (0.95) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 604
• Priming intuitive thinking temporarily raises belief in God. #exemplifies (0.95) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 602
• Supernatural punishment explains religion’s prosocial effects better than ideomotor priming #complicates (0.72)