ArticlePsychological research2019
Cognitive flexibility and religious disbelief.
Article in Psychological research, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Role of Flexibility in the Formation and Maintenance of Extreme Beliefs: A Narrative Scoping Review.Scandinavian journal of psychology · 2026Article
- Common and unique network basis for externally and internally driven flexibility in cognition: From a developmental perspective.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2025Article
- A neural network for religious fundamentalism derived from patients with brain lesions.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- The relationship between corona disease anxiety and sleep disturbances and suicidal ideation in medical staff: The mediating role of resiliency and cognitive flexibility: A cross-sectional study.Health science reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Cognitive flexibility and emotional self-regulation of the elderly with Empty nest syndrome: Benefits of acceptance and commitment therapy.Health science reports · 2023Article
- The Relationship Between Religiousness/Spirituality and Psychometric Intelligence in the United States.Journal of religion and health · 2022Article
- Parental religiosity is associated with changes in youth functional network organization and cognitive performance in early adolescence.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- A Psychology of Ideology: Unpacking the Psychological Structure of Ideological Thinking.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2022Article
- Leadership in Education, Medical Education and Health.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- The cognitive and perceptual correlates of ideological attitudes: a data-driven approach.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Who Is Listening? Spokesperson Effect on Communicating Social and Physical Distancing Measures During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
- Cognitive Inflexibility Predicts Extremist Attitudes.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Article
- Creating Environmental Health Leaders When Educators Are Learning Too.Journal of medical education and curricular developmentArticle
- Level and Relationships of Life Satisfaction with Cognitive Flexibility and Resilience in IT Professionals.Indian journal of occupational and environmental medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cognitive flexibility is operationalized in the neuropsychological literature as the ability to shift between modes of thinking and adapt to novel or changing environments. Religious belief systems consist of strict rules and rituals that offer adherents certainty, consistency, and stability. Consequently, we hypothesized that religious adherence and practice of repetitive religious rituals may be related to the persistence versus flexibility of one's cognition. The present study investigated the extent to which tendencies towards cognitive flexibility versus persistence are related to three facets of religious life: religious affiliation, religious practice, and religious upbringing. In a large sample (N = 744), we found that religious disbelief was related to cognitive flexibility across three independent behavioural measures: the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Remote Associates Test, and Alternative Uses Test. Furthermore, lower frequency of religious service attendance was related to cognitive flexibility. When analysing participants' religious upbringing in relation to their current religious affiliation, it was manifest that current affiliation was more influential than religious upbringing in all the measured facets of cognitive flexibility. The findings indicate that religious affiliation and engagement may shape and be shaped by cognitive control styles towards flexibility versus persistence, highlighting the tight links between flexibility of thought and religious ideologies.
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Registered trials
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.