Is There Any Hemispheric Asymmetry Difference for Processing Religious Stimuli in People With High and Low Religious Attitude?

Gülbetekin E.

PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY, cilt.13, sa.1, ss.94-100, 2021 (AHCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 13 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2021
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1037/rel0000264
  • Dergi Adı: PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, ATLA Religion Database, Psycinfo
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.94-100
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: religious attitude, hemispheric asymmetry, religious stimuli
  • Akdeniz Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Religious and mystical experiences might correlate with the interaction between the two brain hemispheres. This study aimed to determine whether there is any hemispheric specialization in processing religious stimuli and any difference in hemispheric asymmetry patterns between participants with high and low religious attitudes. Visual half-field presentation was used to measure the response of the hemispheres behaviorally. Religious and neutral photographs were presented either into the right visual field/left hemisphere (RVF/LH) or left visual field/right hemisphere (LVF/RH). The participants were asked to rate the feeling evoked by each photograph on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = very negative, 7 = very positive). The response time results indicated a right hemispheric superiority in processing speed of the stimuli; however, no hemispheric specialization was found for evaluation of the religious stimuli. The low religious participants showed LVF/RH advantage in reaction time (RT) for both religious and neutral stimuli, while the high religious participants showed an RVF/LH advantage for the religious stimuli. The findings are discussed in the context of approach-withdrawal and valence hypothesis.