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Like a camera in the sky? Thinking about God increases public self-awareness and socially desirable responding

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Abstract

Believers describe God as a strategic social agent who perceives human thoughts and actions. Thinking about God therefore might make believers feel as if their behavior is being monitored, a possibility we call the supernatural monitoring hypothesis. Three studies offered new and converging empirical support for this hypothesis using two variables that are sensitive to perceived social surveillance: public self-awareness and socially desirable responding. For believers, the effect of an explicit God prime on public self-awareness was comparable to the effect of thinking about how other people view oneself (Experiment 1). An implicit God concepts prime increased public self-awareness (Experiment 2) and socially desirable responding (Experiment 3) among believers. These studies offer the first direct evidence that thinking of God triggers perceived social surveillance.

Highlights

► We tested the supernatural monitoring hypothesis: Do believers feel watched by God? ► Everyday social cognitive processes enable the mental representation of gods. ► We tested whether thinking of God triggers the same reactions as do human observers. ► Thinking of God caused cognitive consequences similar to being watched by people.

Section snippets

Experiment 1: God vs. people

In Experiment 1, we hypothesized that thinking of God and thinking of social evaluation by other people would similarly elicit public self-awareness. Participants were randomly assigned to a control condition, a God Prime condition, or a People Prime condition in which they thought about how other people view them. In addition, we measured individual differences in religious devotion as a potential moderator.

Experiment 2: Implicit God Prime

In Experiment 2, we used a standard implicit priming technique (Srull & Wyer, 1979) that is commonly used to prime concepts outside of conscious awareness. We tested the hypothesis that even implicit God concept primes increase public self-awareness.

Experiment 3: Socially desirable responding

When people feel that their behavior is being monitored, they tend to cast themselves in a positive light. If God primes make people feel watched, then they should also increase socially desirable responding. Although previous research demonstrates a positive association between religiosity and socially desirable responding (e.g. Burris & Navara, 2002), we are unaware of any experiments demonstrating a causal relationship. We hypothesized that, because perceived social surveillance increases

General discussion

The intimate connection between mind perception and God “perception” implies that thoughts of God might cause many of the same psychological consequences as does being aware that other people are monitoring one's behavior. Consistent with the supernatural monitoring hypothesis, for believers, explicitly thinking about God heightened public self-awareness in a manner comparable to thinking about social evaluation (Experiment 1). Furthermore, even thoughts of God activated without conscious

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