blog

Via F1000 Member Earl Miller on twitter comes a nomination for an Ig Nobel prize: a note in Neuropsychologia, Thinking of God moves attention^{10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.09.029}.

The authors, at the University of Toronto, looked at target detection responses of people, finding faster responses when concepts of God or Devil were associated, respectively, with up/right or down/left spatial locations. They conclude that “metaphors associated with the divine have strong spatial components that can produce shifts of attention,” as well as adding to evidence for a strong connection between your internal (spatial) mind map and attention allocation externally.

Intriguingly, the results were not affected by the reported ‘religiosity’ of the subjects, indicating a strong non-faith based cultural component. Unfortunately I can’t access the paper so I don’t know if there are any culture-specific confounders.