Pictures Are Worth a Thousand Words and a Moral Decision or Two: Religious Symbols Prime Moral Judgments

Symbols represent information we have previously learned or experienced, but they can also serve to encourage thoughts and behaviors that are consistent with this knowledge/experience in order to maintain social cohesion. Secular pictures representing moral rules have been shown to influence moral d...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs: Cavrak, Sarah E. (Auteur) ; Kleider-Offutt, Heather M. (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group 2015
Dans: The international journal for the psychology of religion
Année: 2015, Volume: 25, Numéro: 3, Pages: 173-192
Accès en ligne: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Édition parallèle:Électronique
Description
Résumé:Symbols represent information we have previously learned or experienced, but they can also serve to encourage thoughts and behaviors that are consistent with this knowledge/experience in order to maintain social cohesion. Secular pictures representing moral rules have been shown to influence moral decisions, but there is no empirical evidence to demonstrate that religious pictures (e.g., crucifix) encourage the same outcome. Two studies examined whether religious pictures would influence decision making (lexical, moral) and whether personal religious belief was a moderating factor. Results overall showed that religious pictures influenced decision making. In Study 1, lexical decisions were faster to religious than nonreligious words when primed with religious pictures. In Study 2a, participants rated morally ambiguous actions as less morally appropriate when primed with religious pictures. This occurred to a greater degree for religious participants. In Study 2b, there was a priming effect of religious versus control words on moral decisions, but this was not influenced by individual religious beliefs. When compared, pictures versus words led to lower ratings of moral appropriateness for presented actions. Implications for religious iconography and moral education are discussed.
ISSN:1532-7582
Contient:Enthalten in: The international journal for the psychology of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/10508619.2014.921111