Religion and Self Control

For Good Self-Control, Try Getting Religious About It

John Tierney reports today in the Science section of the NYTimes findings by a psychologist that religious people demonstrate more self control that than the general population. Dr. Michael McCullough (of the University of Miami) and a fellow researcher have surveyed eighty years of research and found:

...As early as the 1920s, researchers found that students who spent more time in Sunday school did better at laboratory tests measuring their self-discipline. Subsequent studies showed that religiously devout children were rated relatively low in impulsiveness by both parents and teachers, and that religiosity repeatedly correlated with higher self-control among adults. Devout people were found to be more likely than others to wear seat belts, go to the dentist and take vitamins...

Does that imply religious people have lower doctor bills and live longer. Not only that...but better teeth! Heh! There's more:

“...Brain-scan studies have shown that when people pray or meditate, there’s a lot of activity in two parts of the brain that are important for self-regulation and control of attention and emotion,” he said. “The rituals that religions have been encouraging for thousands of years seem to be a kind of anaerobic workout for self-control.”

That points up the value of ritual. But what about 'spiritual' people, those with a sense of the Divine who are concerned with their relationship to it? How do they compare to more traditional 'religious' people?

...strongly religious people were compared with people who subscribed to more general spiritual notions, like the idea that their lives were “directed by a spiritual force greater than any human being” or that they felt “a spiritual connection to other people.” The religious people scored relatively high in conscientiousness and self-control, whereas the spiritual people tended to score relatively low...

So beings one's own guide, following your heart--so to speak, does not impart the benefits of a more pious outlook! Maybe "the self" is not the best thing to rely on when temptation looms?

“..Thinking about the oneness of humanity and the unity of nature doesn’t seem to be related to self-control,” Dr. McCullough said. “The self-control effect seems to come from being engaged in religious institutions and behaviors...”

John Tierney asks:

...Does this mean that nonbelievers like me should start going to church? Even if you don’t believe in a supernatural god, you could try improving your self-control by at least going along with the rituals of organized religion...But that probably wouldn’t work either, Dr. McCullough told me, because personality studies have identified a difference between true believers and others who attend services for extrinsic reasons, like wanting to impress people or make social connections. The intrinsically religious people have higher self-control, but the extrinsically religious do not. Religious people, he said, are self-controlled not simply because they fear God’s wrath, but because they’ve absorbed the ideals of their religion into their own system of values, and have thereby given their personal goals an aura of sacredness. He suggested that nonbelievers try a secular version of that strategy. Of course, it requires some self-control to carry out that exercise — and maybe more effort than it takes to go to church...

So, just going through the motions does not bring a pay-off. You have to internalize these issues, make them a part of yourself. Dr. McCullough concludes:

“...Sacred values come prefabricated for religious believers,” Dr. McCullough said. “The belief that God has preferences for how you behave and the goals you set for yourself has to be the granddaddy of all psychological devices for encouraging people to follow through with their goals. That may help to explain why belief in God has been so persistent through the ages...”