New research has found that Christians are less likely to perceive negative mental states in others after prayer.
The study involved 110 Dutch Christians who either prayed for a person in need or just thought of a person in need before taking the Mind-in-the-Eyes test to assess their social perception. The test required participants to rate whether the eyes of different people in 36 photographs displayed negative or positive emotions.
A study published in the journal Religion, Brain & Behavior found that participants who prayed tended to recognize less hostility in the eyes of others. This was especially true for participants who reported greater trust in God and believed that God was benevolent.
PsyPost asked the relevant study author, Marieke Meyer Van Abbem of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, about the study's findings.
PsyPost: Why are you interested in this topic?
We have observed that Christians behave socially for completely different reasons. The main reasons, apparently, are, firstly, group pressure, fear of being rejected by others and God, and secondly, because of the intention to be like Jesus, to trust and share God's love. The result of these different motivations is the same, namely prosocial behavior. We wondered if the differences would be on a more subconscious level in relation to other people.
What should the average person take away from your research?
The way you look at God influences the way you look at others, even if you don't believe in God. The results showed that people who believed in a loving and caring God were unable to recognize negative emotions in the eyes of others after activating faith in God, in this case through prayer. If you believe that God loves you and you trust Him to take care of you, you will trust others more, perhaps because you don’t need to be vigilant - God will protect you. Your perspective may also change. When God loves us, we will love others. There is a study among Palestinians where participants were asked to look at others through the eyes of God. This softened prejudice against Israelis and fostered more pro-social behavior.
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