Threatened personal control increases faith in God or government interchangeably

Evidence

But the fluidity of God and government is not just in the social arena. It also plays out inside peoples’ heads. Studies by psychologists Aaron Kay, David Moscovitch, and Kristin Laurin show how. Their work explores the basic need to feel “in control.” A good way to learn what this need does in human psychology and culture is to see what happens when this sense of control is under threat. Kay and colleagues have found ingenious ways to undermine feelings of control in the laboratory. For example, in one priming study, participants were exposed to control-undermining words such as chance and random. In the neutral condition, the words were matched for negativity but were unrelated to personal control (poorly, slimy). In other studies, participants in the threat condition are encouraged to recall an event in their lives that was unpredictable and aroused feelings of losing control. In the comparison condition, participants recall an event that is no more positive or negative, but predictable. Next, participants are asked about their faith in God or in government. When people feel that their grip on life is shaken, they turn to external forms of control: it could be God, or it could be the government. If I’m not in control, the logic goes, at least someone powerful out there is. Things are fine as long as things are under control in one way or another. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 568

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s project: those who trample the fumi-e and apostatize retain belief in the shogun’s omniscient surveillance as substitute control — and by extension to how Rodrigues’ Japanese tormentors frame authority. Also resonates with the earlier silence/noise work on control. — connects to: Who controls land destiny is a live question about wealth versus prayer throughout society — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 68
• QUESTION: Kay’s priming study uses words like ‘chance’ and ‘random’ vs matched negativity — curious whether the government-faith condition specifically mirrors the God-faith effect sizes.