God and abstract thinking

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Religious beliefs are a pervasive cross-cultural phenomenon and they play an important role many people's lives, influencing their judgments and decisions every day. Yet relatively little is known about the underlying cognitive processes. The research presented in this book set out to address this important gap by investigating the relationship between religious beliefs and one particular cognitive process known to have a systematic impact on judgments, decisions, and behavior: mental abstraction. The series of correlational and experimental studies reported here shows that religiosity is positively related to mental abstraction and provides evidence for a causal influence of religious belief on construal level. Furthermore, it demonstrates the role different God concepts play for this relationship. Possible underlying mechanisms, limitations, and implications for future research are discussed.