After God's Image, Prayer Leads People with Positive God Beliefs to Read Less Hostility in Others’ Eyes

In Experiment 1, Dutch Christians either prayed for or thought about a person, and then judged the emotions of others in the Reading-the-Mind-in-the-Eyes Test. The results showed that prayer led participants to read fewer hostile emotions in others’ eyes, whereas prayer had no effect on perceiving positive emotions or non-hostile negative emotions.

Experiment 2 extended this finding by showing that prayer only reduced social perceptions of hostility among participants with a positive God image. Thus, beliefs in a benign God may enhance interpersonal trust among believers, but only when God beliefs are cognitively accessible. These findings suggest that positive God beliefs may help to promote prosocial attitudes and cooperation within religious communities.