title: Ontological confusions but not mentalizing abilities predict religious belief, paranormal belief, and belief in supernatural purpose.
abstract: The current research tested the hypothesis that the abilities for understanding other people's minds give rise to the cognitive biases that underlie supernatural beliefs. We used structural equation modeling (N=2789) to determine the roles of various mentalizing tendencies, namely self-reported affective and cognitive empathy (i.e., mind reading), actual cognitive and affective empathic abilities, hyper-empathizing, and two cognitive biases (core ontological confusions and promiscuous teleology) in giving rise to supernatural beliefs. Support for a path from mentalizing abilities through cognitive biases to supernatural beliefs was weak. The relationships of mentalizing abilities with supernatural beliefs were also weak, and these relationships were not substantially mediated by cognitive biases. Core ontological confusions emerged as the best predictor, while promiscuous teleology predicted only a small proportion of variance. The results were similar for religious beliefs, paranormal beliefs, and for belief in supernatural purpose.
authors.affiliation: University of Helsinki, Division of Cognitive Psychology and Neuropsychology, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, P.O. Box 9, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: marjaana.lindeman@helsinki.fi.
authors.forename: Marjaana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lindeman
authors.affiliation: University of Helsinki, Division of Cognitive Psychology and Neuropsychology, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, P.O. Box 9, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: annika.svedholm@helsinki.fi.
authors.forename: Annika M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Svedholm-Häkkinen
authors.affiliation: University of Helsinki, Division of Cognitive Psychology and Neuropsychology, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, P.O. Box 9, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: jari.lipsanen@helsinki.fi.
authors.forename: Jari
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lipsanen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D013483:Superstitions / Q000523:psychology*; D056345:Theory of Mind / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Empathy; Mentalizing; Ontological confusions; Paranormal; Promiscuous teleology; Supernatural