A New York Times article By John Tierney on December 29 led us to the Psychological Bulletin’s first 2009 issue, which has “Religion, self-control, and self-regulation: Associations, explanations and implications” by Dr. Michael McCullough and co-researcher Brian Willoughby. Both are with the University of Miami.
We learn from both articles that what Christian and Jewish spiritual guides—as well as Indian yogis—have been saying is true, despite the doubts and mockery of Western-influenced secular opinion leaders. Religious practices, going to church, meditation, and being committed to religious ideals and convictions also produce temporal benefits in believers.
In other words being religious does not only win rewards in the afterlife but also “mundane” benefits. (We put the word “mundane” in quotes because the most rigorous Christian spiritual directors—like Saint Josemaria Escriva—do not scoff at things of the world but instead see them as the material that must be “divinized” or made holy by the believer through his work, sacrifices and prayers. And doing that is what will also “divinize” him.
Dr. McCullough and his fellow scholars and psychologists have reviewed the past 80 years’ research and found that religious belief and practices promote self-control. And internal strength.
Dr. McCullough’s “professional interest,” Mr. Tierney writes, “arose from a desire to understand why religion evolved and why it seems to help so many people. Researchers around the world have repeatedly found that devoutly religious people tend to do better in school, live longer, have more satisfying marriages and be generally happier.”
Mr. Tierney reports that Dr. McCollough “has no evangelical motives” in devoting himself to religion and its effects for his research. He told Tierney: “When it comes to religion, professionally, I’m a fan but personally I don’t get down on the field much.”
Dr. McCollough et al. discovered, writes Tierney, that “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.”
The scientists then asked: Which came first, the religious devotion or the self-control? Aren’t children who have the will to sit through Sunday Masses or chapel services innately self-disciplined while those who drop out are not? Dr. McCulough and fellow researchers took that factor into account. Then they still found that religion does influence the development of human virtues that lead to success and doing work well.
“Brain-scan studies have shown that when people pray or meditate, there’s a lot of activity in two parts of brain that are important for self-regulation and control of attention and emotion,” Dr. McColough told Tierney. “The rituals that religions have been encouraging for thousands of years seem to be a kind of anaerobic workout for self-control.”
Should nonbelievers now start going to church and going through the rituals— to get the practical benefits of well-being, self-control and inner strength?
Dr. McCullough told Tierney that studies have shown that people who go to church for “extrinsic reasons, like wanting to impress people or make social connections” were found not to have the higher self-control that sincere believers—“intrinsically religious people”—have.
Dr. McCullough and associates have also done researches showing the good effects on health of forgiveness, thankfulness and other virtues associated with piety and religious belief.
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New York Times Article: For Good Self-Control, Try Getting Religious About It
Original Research Study: McCullough, M. E., & Willoughby, B. L. B. (in press, 2008). Religion, self-control, and self-regulation: Associations, explanations, and implications. Psychological Bulletin.
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