Explaining Death by Tornado: Religiosity and the God-Serving Bias

Two self-report experiments examined how religiosity affects attributions made for the outcome of a tornado. Undergraduate students (N = 533) and online adults (N = 537) read a fictional vignette about a tornado that hits a small town in the United States. The townspeople met at church and prayed or...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Riggio, Heidi R. (Author) ; Uhalt, Joshua (Author) ; Matthies, Brigitte K. (Author)
Contributors: Harvey, Theresa (Other) ; Lowden, Nya (Other) ; Umana, Victoria (Other)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: SAGE Publishing 2018
In: Archive for the psychology of religion
Year: 2018, Volume: 40, Issue: 1, Pages: 32-59
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Natural catastrophe / Foundations of / Salvation / Will of God / Death
RelBib Classification:AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
AE Psychology of religion
Further subjects:B God-serving bias religiosity attributions natural disaster atheist agnostic Christian
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:Two self-report experiments examined how religiosity affects attributions made for the outcome of a tornado. Undergraduate students (N = 533) and online adults (N = 537) read a fictional vignette about a tornado that hits a small town in the United States. The townspeople met at church and prayed or prepared emergency shelters for three days before the tornado; either no one died or over 200 people died from the tornado. Participants made attributions of cause to God, prayer, faith, and worship. In both studies, individuals identifying as Christian made more attributions to God, prayer, faith, and worship, but only when no one died; when townspeople died, Christian participants made fewer attributions to God, prayer, faith, and worship (the God-serving bias). Individuals identifying as agnostic or atheist did not show this bias. Directions for future research in terms of implicit religious beliefs and normative evaluations of religion are discussed.
ISSN:1573-6121
Contains:In: Archive for the psychology of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15736121-12341349