Perceiving Minds and Gods: How Mind Perception Enables, Constrains, and Is Triggered by Belief in Gods.
Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science July 1, 2013 Will M Gervais 116 citations
People commonly conceive of gods as intentional agents with humanlike mental lives. This regularity arises because the human capacity to perceive minds, a basic cognitive ability, both enables and constrains belief in gods. Mind perception influences individual differences in religious beliefs, implicit representations of supernatural agents, and nonreligious experience. Reminders of gods and cues of social surveillance, such as audiences or video cameras, produce similar effects on prosocial behavior, socially desirable responding, and self-awareness. Converging evidence indicates that mind perception is both a cause and a consequence of many religious beliefs.