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Thinking of God moves attention
Alison L Chasteen1, Donna C Burdzy, Jay Pratt
1Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. chasteen@psych.utoronto.ca
Neuropsychologia
|October 7, 2009
Summary
Exposure to God and Devil concepts, often linked to spatial metaphors, influences attention. Participants showed faster responses to targets in compatible locations, regardless of religiosity, highlighting the mind-space connection.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Religious Studies
Background:
- Concepts of God and Devil are prevalent across cultures and religions.
- These concepts frequently employ spatial metaphors (e.g., God above, Devil below).
- The impact of these mental representations on visual cognition remains largely unexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether exposure to divine concepts (God and Devil) influences attentional allocation.
- To determine if spatial metaphors associated with these concepts affect visual processing.
- To examine the role of religiosity in this effect.
Main Methods:
- Participants completed a target detection task.
- Exposure to God- and Devil-related words preceded target presentation.
- Reaction times (RTs) were measured for target detection at various locations.
Main Results:
- Faster RTs were observed when targets appeared in locations compatible with the concepts (up/right for God, down/left for Devil).
- These effects were consistent across participants, irrespective of their level of religiosity.
- The findings suggest a robust link between internal spatial representations and external attention.
Conclusions:
- Spatial metaphors associated with divine concepts significantly influence attentional shifts.
- Internal spatial representations demonstrably impact attention allocation in the external environment.
- This study provides further evidence for the deep connection between abstract concepts and spatial cognition.
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