God will forgive: Reflecting on gods love decreases neurophysiological responses to errors

Abstract

In religions where God is portrayed as both loving and wrathful, religious beliefs may be a source of fear as well as comfort. Here, we consider if Gods love may be more effective, relative to Gods wrath, for soothing distress, but less effective for helping control behavior. Specifically, we assess whether contemplating Gods love reduces our ability to detect and emotionally react to conflict between ones behavior and overarching religious standards. We do so within a neurophysiological framework, by observing the effects of exposure to concepts of Gods love vs punishment on the error-related negativity (ERN)a neural signal originating in the anterior cingulate cortex that is associated with performance monitoring and affective responses to errors. Participants included 123 students at Brigham Young University, who completed a Go/No-Go task where they made religious errors (i.e. ostensibly exhibited pro-alcohol tendencies). Reflecting on Gods love caused dampened ERNs and worse performance on the Go/No-Go task. Thinking about Gods punishment did not affect performance or ERNs. Results suggest that one possible reason religiosity is generally linked to positive well-being may be because of a decreased affective response to errors that occurs when Gods love is prominent in the minds of believers.