Religion
Related: About this forumReligion and Reason: Analytic thinking decreases religious belief.
Q: If a baseball and bat cost $110, and the bat costs $100 more than the ball, how much does the ball cost?
A: If you answered $10 you are inclined to believe in religion. If you answered $5 you are inclined to disbelieve.
Why? Because, according to new research reported in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science, the $10 answer indicates that you are an intuitive thinker, and the $5 answer indicates that you solve problems analytically, rather than following your gut instinct.
Psychologists William Gervais and Ara Norenzayan, of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, predicted that people who were more analytic in thinking would tend not to believe in religion, whereas people who approach problems more intuitively would tend to be believers. Their study confirmed the hypothesis and the findings illuminate the mysterious cognitive process by which we reach decisions about our beliefs.
Cognitive theory of decision making supports the hypothesis that there are two independent processes involved in decision making. The first process is based on gut instinct, and this process is shared by other animals. The second cognitive process is an evolutionarily recent development, exclusive to humans, which utilizes logical reasoning to make decisions. Their study of 179 Canadian undergraduate students showed that people who tend to solve problems more analytically also tended to be religious disbelievers. This was demonstrated by giving the students a series of questions like the one above and then scoring them on the basis of whether they used intuition or analytic logic to reach the answers. Afterward, the researchers surveyed the students on whether or not they held religious beliefs. The results showed that the intuitive thinkers were much more likely to believe in religion.
To test whether there is a causative basis for this correlation, the researchers then used various subtle manipulations to promote analytic reasoning in test subjects. Prior research in psychology has shown that priming stimuli that subconsciously suggest analytical thinking will tend to increase analytic reasoning measured on a subsequent test. For example, if subjects are shown a picture of Rodin's sculpture "The Thinker" (seated head-in-hand pondering) they score higher in measures of analytic thinking in tests given immediately afterward. Their studies confirmed this effect but also showed that those subjects who showed increased analytic thinking also were significantly more likely to be disbelievers in religion when surveyed immediately after the test.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-new-brain/201204/religion-and-reason
According to this, I'm a believer! Who knew?
stopbush
(24,396 posts)laconicsax
(14,860 posts)cleanhippie
(19,705 posts)Hated it in school, and hate it now!
laconicsax
(14,860 posts)Without a good grasp of algebra it would be exceedingly difficult to fully appreciate the mathematics that describe reality.
BTW: There's a more intuitive way to at least know that $10 is the wrong answer--$10 is outrageously expensive for a baseball.
dkf
(37,305 posts)Even political affiliation.
saras
(6,670 posts)I saw two balls and a castrated bat, and $5, $5,and $100 were 'intuitively' obvious, though I'd say it was memorization rather than intuition, like the times tables.
no_hypocrisy
(46,088 posts)rug
(82,333 posts)Duane - St. Pete FLA
Im a GOPer and an atheist which does not set well with some other GOPers. I normally do not agree with most that comes out of CNN and its left leaning coverage of issues and their continued picking and choosing stories that strive to make black America the victims (when in fact they are lucky to live here), but this I do agree with. God, Allah and the like and cute little stories that no one in their right mind would believe. Burning talking bushs, walking on water, flying monkeys (wait thats the wizard of OZ) all to me are silly stories but if people want to believe than more power to them
.just keep the talk out of politics.
April 27, 2012 at 11:45 am
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/27/as-politicians-talk-more-about-faith-voters-seem-to-want-less/comment-page-6/
Silent3
(15,206 posts)...but in reading over this post, even with my recognition of the question, my mind went to $10, and I had to see answer of $5 to remember.