J 2016

Religious Cognition and Behaviour in Autism: The Role of Mentalizing

REDDISH, Paul, Penny TOK SIEW LING and Radek KUNDT

Basic information

Original name

Religious Cognition and Behaviour in Autism: The Role of Mentalizing

Authors

REDDISH, Paul (554 New Zealand, belonging to the institution), Penny TOK SIEW LING (702 Singapore, belonging to the institution) and Radek KUNDT (826 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, guarantor, belonging to the institution)

Edition

The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, Roma, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016, 1050-8619

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Článek v odborném periodiku

Field of Study

60300 6.3 Philosophy, Ethics and Religion

Country of publisher

United States of America

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Impact factor

Impact factor: 0.897

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14210/16:00089155

Organization unit

Faculty of Arts

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2014.1003518

UT WoS

000372701800001

Keywords in English

agency; anthropomorphism; asperger syndrome; autism spectrum disorders; behaviour; belief; cognitive science; mentalizing; prayer; religion; ritual; theory of mind

Tags

rivok

Tags

International impact, Reviewed
Změněno: 27/3/2017 11:52, Mgr. Vendula Hromádková

Abstract

V originále

Mentalizing, or theory of mind, has been argued to be critical for supporting religious beliefs and practices involving supernatural agents. As individuals with autism spectrum conditions have been found to have deficits in mentalizing, this raises the question as to how they may conceive of gods and behave in relation to gods. To examine this, we compared high functioning individuals with autism (HFA) to typically developing individuals across seven key aspects of religious cognition and behaviour: (1) strength of belief; (2) anthropomorphism of god concepts; (3) felt closeness towards the god; (4) prayer habits; (5) attraction to prayer; (6) efficacy of prayer; and (7) a sense of agency whilst praying. A battery of mentalizing tasks was administered to measure mentalizing ability, along with the Autism-Spectrum Quotient. As expected, typically developing subjects performed better than HFA subjects in the advanced mentalizing task. However, no statistically significant differences were found with first order and second order false belief tasks. In contrast to our predictions and previous research on the religiosity of HFA, we found very little differences between the groups in their religious cognition and behaviour. Moreover, the relationship between mentalizing ability and most of our measures of religious cognition and behaviour was weak and negative. Our data suggest that HFA's deficits in mentalizing appear to have only minimal impact on the way they interact and think about gods. We end the paper by re-evaluating the role mentalizing may have in religious cognition and behaviour.

Links

EE2.3.20.0048, research and development project
Name: Laboratoř pro experimentální výzkum náboženství
Displayed: 14/11/2024 13:49