Thinking About God Causes Internal Reflection in Believers and Unbelievers of God

Abstract

Previous research found that reflecting on God increased public self-awareness. There is, however, reason to expect that reflecting on God should also direct attention inward to the private self. Thus, this work examined whether priming God increases private self-awareness. The results showed that reflecting on God increased private self-awareness, irrespective of the belief in God, and the effect remained, even after controlling for trait levels of private self-awareness and state public self-awareness. Contrary to previous findings, reflecting on God did not increase public self-awareness. These findings provide a foundation for further research on a number of questions related to why God prompts internal reflection.

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