Research highlights

From religious homophobia to physical aggression Religious claims of “liking the sinner” (gay person) though “hating the sin” (homosexuality) seem not to be true. Using the paradigm of the hot sauce allocation as indicator of aggression, we found that religious people are prone to physically aggress a fictitious gay target who praised gay rights.

Religiosity implies helping behavior in real life Prosocial behavior as an outcome of individual religiosity has been questioned as unreal or only being a stereotype. In a recent experiment, religious people helped another person in need more than did the non-religious. This behavior implied some cost and was measured in a real life context.

Admiration and elevation increase spirituality Spirituality is not only a response to negative experiences; it also increases following self-transcendent positive emotions. This was already shown for awe. New experiments show this is also the case with admiration and elevation, since they boost meaningfulness of life and benevolence of the world.

Buddhist primes increase Westerners' tolerance and prosociality Does hetero-religious priming increase or decrease prosociality and outgroup prejudice? It depends on what is the culturally different religion. As shown in a recent experiment, religious ideas nonconsciously shape behavior in a different from the origin culture.

Is religion not prosocial at all? In a recent PsyBull review, it was argued that the religion-prosociality link is a fallacy. However, careful and more balanced examination of the existing evidence suggests that, while limited and conditional, such a link exists; several psychological mechanisms may be responsible.

Adolescence: "sensitive" period for spirituality or atheism? Adolescents’ religiosity is indicative of several positive outcomes but not necessarily of optimal development. Adolescence has been argued to be a “sensitive” period for spirituality; but it is also (or rather) a “sensitive” period for religious doubt and atheism, what may be adaptive.

  

Fundamentalists: antisocial or prosocial? It depends on the text Are fundamentalists antisocial or prosocial? It depends on the authoritative religious text they are exposed to. Prosocial texts make fundamentalists to want to help negligent people and even atheists; violent texts make them to be unwilling to help unknown people and atheists.

 

Believers and atheists: Do they know each other? What are the meta-stereotypes of believers and non-believers, i.e. how does each group think the other group perceives it? Do these groups accurately estimate the outgroup’s stereotypes?

 

Religious prime increases authoritarians' non-empathetic morality What if moral integrity conflicts with interpersonal care? What is the role of religion? In a recent experiment, religious priming made authoritarians to choose attachment to abstract, impersonal deontology at the detriment of the well-being of relatives and acquaintances.

Existential quest differs from low dogmatism or religious quest Questioning one’s own existential beliefs is an understudied epistemological tendency. Existential Quest is a specific construct that can be distinguished from search for meaning in life, religious quest, need for closure, and dogmatism;

Religion may predict low well-being among ex-immigrants A recent study shows that religious ex-immigrants tend to be attached only to the origin and not the new, adoption culture; and in the context of perceived misperception by the majority, religiosity predicts low self-esteem and more depression among ex-immigrants.

Fundamentalists, as religious authoritarians, can be prosocial Past research has focused on fundamentalists’ prejudice because of the underlying authoritarianism. In two new experiments we found that, because of the underlying religiosity, fundamentalism implies prosociality too, although limited to familiar and non-threatening targets.

Subliminal religious priming activates submission and conformity According to many theoretical perspectives, religion is positively associated with submission and conformity. However, no study to date provided experimental evidence for this hypothesis. We did so in three experiments that relied on priming procedures.

"Born" to be religious: Universal personality predispositions? Personality predispositions of religiousness seem to be universal: they are the same across religions, religious dimensions, countries, genders, ages, and cohorts. This was found in a recent meta-analysis of 71 studies from 19 countries

Subtle prejudice/racism predicts hostility to the Islamic veil To investigate majority members’ attitudes towards the veil, two studies carried out in Belgium integrated three lines of research focusing on (a) the role of subtle racism on the host society’s attitudes towards immigrants, (b) the role of values on acculturation, and (c) the role of religious attitudes on prejudice.

Positive emotions increase religion - spirituality in lab experiments A great variety of negative events and emotions can increase religion and spirituality. We argued though that positive events and emotions (that imply some self-transcendence; e.g. awe) can also increase religion and spirituality. Two experiments provided evidence in favor of this idea.