Supernatural believers attribute more intentions to random movement than skeptics: an fMRI study.
A host of research has attempted to explain why some believe in the supernatural and some do not. One suggested explanation for commonly held supernatural beliefs is that they are a by-product of theory of mind (ToM) processing. However, this does not explain why skeptics with intact ToM processes do not believe. We employed fMRI to investigate activation differences in ToM-related brain circuitries between supernatural believers (N = 12) and skeptics (N = 11) while they watched 2D animations of geometric objects moving intentionally or randomly and rated the intentionality of the animations. The ToM-related circuitries in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) were localized by contrasting intention-rating-related and control-rating-related brain activation. Compared with the skeptics, the supernatural believers rated the random movements as more intentional and had stronger activation of the ToM-related circuitries during the animation with random movement. The strength of the ToM-related activation covaried with the intentionality ratings. These findings provide evidence that differences in ToM-related activations are associated with supernatural believers' tendency to interpret random phenomena in mental terms. Thus, differences in ToM processing may contribute to differences between believing and unbelieving.
a Division of Cognitive Psychology and Neuropsychology, Institute of Behavioural Sciences , University of Helsinki , Helsinki , Finland.
Tapani
T
Riekki
Marjaana
M
Lindeman
Tuukka T
TT
Raij
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D012146:Rest / Q000502:physiology; D056345:Theory of Mind; D055815:Young Adult
Intentionality; Supernatural beliefs; Theory of mind; fMRI