Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25062839›Full record

ArticleSocial cognitive and affective neuroscience2015

God will forgive: reflecting on God's love decreases neurophysiological responses to errors.

Marie Good, Michael Inzlicht, Michael J Larson

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
11citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
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  4. Review
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  10. Performance monitoring during a minimal group manipulation.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2016
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Marie GoodPsychology Department, Redeemer University College, Ancaster, ON, Canada, L9K 1J4, Psychology Department, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, MiC 1A4 and Psychology Department, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA, 84602 mgood@redeemer.ca.
Michael InzlichtPsychology Department, Redeemer University College, Ancaster, ON, Canada, L9K 1J4, Psychology Department, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, MiC 1A4 and Psychology Department, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA, 84602.
Michael J LarsonPsychology Department, Redeemer University College, Ancaster, ON, Canada, L9K 1J4, Psychology Department, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, MiC 1A4 and Psychology Department, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA, 84602.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In religions where God is portrayed as both loving and wrathful, religious beliefs may be a source of fear as well as comfort. Here, we consider if God's love may be more effective, relative to God's wrath, for soothing distress, but less effective for helping control behavior. Specifically, we assess whether contemplating God's love reduces our ability to detect and emotionally react to conflict between one's behavior and overarching religious standards. We do so within a neurophysiological framework, by observing the effects of exposure to concepts of God's love vs punishment on the error-related negativity (ERN)--a neural signal originating in the anterior cingulate cortex that is associated with performance monitoring and affective responses to errors. Participants included 123 students at Brigham Young University, who completed a Go/No-Go task where they made 'religious' errors (i.e. ostensibly exhibited pro-alcohol tendencies). Reflecting on God's love caused dampened ERNs and worse performance on the Go/No-Go task. Thinking about God's punishment did not affect performance or ERNs. Results suggest that one possible reason religiosity is generally linked to positive well-being may be because of a decreased affective response to errors that occurs when God's love is prominent in the minds of believers.

Indexed as

LoveReligionAdolescentAdultAffectAlcohol DrinkingElectroencephalographyEvoked PotentialsFemaleGyrus CinguliHumansMalePsychomotor PerformancePunishmentSelf ConceptStress, Psychologicalcontrolerror-related negativityreligionwell-being

Identifiers

PMID25062839
PMCPMC4350493

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.