Is God Really Watching You? A Response to Shariff and Norenzayan

Brandon Randolph-Seng; Michael E. Nielsen

Is God Really Watching You? A Response to Shariff and Norenzayan

Brandon Randolph-Seng
, Michael E. Nielsen

Psychology

Texas Tech University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

Shariff and Norenzayan (2007) recently reported in the journal Psychological Science that covertly priming participants with “God concepts” increased prosocial behavior regardless of self-reported religiosity. They interpreted their data as supportive of ideomotor and supernatural watcher effects, with implications discussed in the context of religion facilitating the development of cooperative societies. However, methodological choices and theoretical ambiguities call into question these interpretations and implications.

Original language	American English
Journal	The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion
Volume	18
State	Published - Jan 1 2008

Disciplines

Psychology
Psychiatry and Psychology

Keywords

God concepts

Cite this

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title = "Is God Really Watching You? A Response to Shariff and Norenzayan",

abstract = "Shariff and Norenzayan (2007) recently reported in the journal Psychological Science that covertly priming participants with “God concepts” increased prosocial behavior regardless of self-reported religiosity. They interpreted their data as supportive of ideomotor and supernatural watcher effects, with implications discussed in the context of religion facilitating the development of cooperative societies. However, methodological choices and theoretical ambiguities call into question these interpretations and implications.",

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author = "Brandon Randolph-Seng and Nielsen, \{Michael E.\}",

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N2 - Shariff and Norenzayan (2007) recently reported in the journal Psychological Science that covertly priming participants with “God concepts” increased prosocial behavior regardless of self-reported religiosity. They interpreted their data as supportive of ideomotor and supernatural watcher effects, with implications discussed in the context of religion facilitating the development of cooperative societies. However, methodological choices and theoretical ambiguities call into question these interpretations and implications.

AB - Shariff and Norenzayan (2007) recently reported in the journal Psychological Science that covertly priming participants with “God concepts” increased prosocial behavior regardless of self-reported religiosity. They interpreted their data as supportive of ideomotor and supernatural watcher effects, with implications discussed in the context of religion facilitating the development of cooperative societies. However, methodological choices and theoretical ambiguities call into question these interpretations and implications.

KW - God concepts

UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10508610701879373

M3 - Article

SN - 1050-8619

VL - 18

JO - The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion

JF - The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion

ER -

Is God Really Watching You? A Response to Shariff and Norenzayan

Abstract

Disciplines

Keywords

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