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The selectivity of nonmaterial beliefs in interpreting life events
Author(s) -
PEPITONE ALBERT,
SAFFIOTTI LUISA
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-0992(199701)27:1<23::aid-ejsp805>3.0.co;2-b
Subject(s) - luck , psychology , comprehension , newspaper , function (biology) , social psychology , sample (material) , event (particle physics) , punishment (psychology) , transcendental number , epistemology , advertising , philosophy , linguistics , chemistry , physics , chromatography , quantum mechanics , evolutionary biology , biology , business
An experimental study addresses the propositions that nonmaterial beliefs, including supernatural powers and transcendental moral laws, function to enhance comprehension of life events, and perform this function selectively. Informal surveys of newspaper articles and two pilot experiments consistently indicated that the beliefs in fate , God , luck , chance , just reward , and just punishment are elicited to explain life events that are difficult to explain in material terms, and are more or less specialized in the life events they explain. In a final experiment, a sample of U.S. university students ( N =103) was presented with 12 life event cases designed to match the belief specializations and asked to interpret freely. Analysis of the reliably coded spontaneous comments confirmed both predictions. In addition, subjects who personally held a given nonmaterial belief used it more selectively than those who did not. Finally, employing the same design and measures, a sample from North India replicated the major U.S. findings. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.