Perceiving Self, Others, and Events Through a Religious Lens: Mahayana Buddhists vs. Christians

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Tsung-Ren Huang¹  Yi-Hao Wang¹ 

[1] Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University

关键词: religion;    Christianity;    Buddhism;    attributional style;    theory of mind;    self–other;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00217

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Are all religions essentially the same? Are believers of different religions heading in the same mental direction? To answer these questions from a sociopsychological perspective, we compared social sensitivity and causal attribution styles between Mahayana Buddhists, who practice unbiased love and compassion toward every being, and Christians, who pursue a union with God. Despite a similar cultural background, sex ratio, age distribution, socioeconomic status, and fluid intelligence level, these two religious groups in Taiwan showed opposite tendencies when inferring the mental states of others – as religiosity increased, the theory of mind ability increased in Mahayana Buddhists but decreased in Christians. Furthermore, these two religious groups showed opposite tendencies of attributional style – as religiosity increased, self-serving bias decreased in Buddhists but increased in Christians. These marked religiosity-dependent, sociopsychological effects suggest that different religions may shape or attract their followers who are moving in quite distinct mental directions.

【 授权许可】

CC BY