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The Influence of Belief in the Supernatural and Perceptions of Religious, Spiritual, or Natural Explanations on Ratings of Positive Affect, Negative Affect, and Intelligence

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Date Issued:
2010
Summary:
Living in complex social environments consists not only of sets of individuals with their own dyadic relationships but also whose own dyadic relationships with other group members must be observed and inferred from. Credibility enhancing displays may provide one effective tool for dealing with complex social environments by extracting and integrating adaptive information from an immense range of potential social partners. Organized religious beliefs typical of routine rituals and standardized religious ideologies may serve as one type of credibility cue. The aim of this study was to assess how others judge adult's expressing a religious, spiritual, or natural explanation on traits associated with Positive Affect, Negative Affect, and Intelligence. Results from the study revealed that religious explanations were more affective than spiritual explanations at influencing perceptions of Positive-Affect and Negative Affect for those high and low in religious beliefs.
Title: The Influence of Belief in the Supernatural and Perceptions of Religious, Spiritual, or Natural Explanations on Ratings of Positive Affect, Negative Affect, and Intelligence.
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Name(s): Periss, Virginia A., author
Bjorklund, David F., Thesis advisor
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Degree grantor
Department of Psychology
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Created: 2010
Date Issued: 2010
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 91 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Living in complex social environments consists not only of sets of individuals with their own dyadic relationships but also whose own dyadic relationships with other group members must be observed and inferred from. Credibility enhancing displays may provide one effective tool for dealing with complex social environments by extracting and integrating adaptive information from an immense range of potential social partners. Organized religious beliefs typical of routine rituals and standardized religious ideologies may serve as one type of credibility cue. The aim of this study was to assess how others judge adult's expressing a religious, spiritual, or natural explanation on traits associated with Positive Affect, Negative Affect, and Intelligence. Results from the study revealed that religious explanations were more affective than spiritual explanations at influencing perceptions of Positive-Affect and Negative Affect for those high and low in religious beliefs.
Identifier: FA00000806 (IID)
Degree granted: Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010.
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Includes bibliography.
Subject(s): Interpersonal relations
Social groups
Religiousness
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Sublocation: Digital Library
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000806
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.