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Motiv Emot (2017) 41:135146 DOI 10.1007/s11031-017-9605-y
ORIGINAL PAPER
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s11031-017-9605-y&domain=pdf
Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s11031-017-9605-y&domain=pdf
Web End = We are notalone: The meaning motive, religiosity, andbelief inextraterrestrial intelligence
ClayRoutledge1 AndrewA.Abeyta1 ChristinaRoylance1
Published online: 6 March 2017 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017
Abstract We tested the proposals that paranormal beliefs about extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) are motivated, in part, by the need for meaning and that this existential motive helps explain the inverse relationship between religiosity and ETI beliefs. In Study 1, we experimentally establish that the motive to nd meaning in life increases ETI beliefs. In Study 2, we replicate previous research demonstrating that low religiosity is associated with greater ETI beliefs. In Studies 34 we tested and found support for a model linking low religiosity to low presence of meaning, high search for meaning, and greater ETI beliefs. In all, our ndings oer a motivational account of why people endorse paranormal beliefs about intelligent alien beings observing and inuencing the lives of humans.
Keywords Meaning Religiosity Atheism Extraterrestrial intelligence
Introduction
A number of scholars have argued that humans are naturally religious as a result of cognitive capacities that facilitate mentalizing the internal states and intentions of others (Atran 2002; Barrett 2000; Bloom 2007; Boyer 2001; Willard and Norenzayan 2013). Religion involves magical thinkingcognitions and beliefs that violate an empirically-based understanding of the natural world. More precisely, religious magical thinking invokes agency and intentionality as explanations of natural phenomena (e.g.,
* Clay Routledge [email protected]
1 North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA
God created the Earth to sustain life) and life outcomes (e.g., positive events are the result of answered prayers).
Based on this idea of natural theism, recent research has advanced the proposal that atheists, despite consciously rejecting religious magical beliefs such as the existence of a deity, are still inuenced by magical thinking and are inclined to engage in this type of thinking when they lack the cognitive resources needed to override it. For example, Lindeman etal. (2014) found that having atheists verbally dare God to harm people increased physiological arousal to a greater extent than having them verbally wish harm on others. In that research, atheists did not self-report any discomfort with invoking God as the agent of harm but at a physiological level...