Does religion provide an evolutionary advantage?

Does religion provide an evolutionary advantage?

Religious people have more self-control than their less religious counterparts, leading to lower rates of substance abuse, better school achievement, better health behaviors, less depression, and longer lives, says University of Miami professor of Psychology, Michael McCullough.

McCullough's new meta-study, appearing in the journal Psychological Bulletin, posits that self-control is critical for success in life, and religious people have more self-control than do their less religious counterparts. Thus, religious people may be better at pursuing and achieving long-term goals that are important to them.

To arrive at his controversial conclusion, McCullough evaluated eight decades of research that was conducted in diverse samples of people from around the world. He found persuasive evidence from a variety of domains - including neuroscience, economics, psychology and sociology - that religious beliefs and religious behaviors are capable of encouraging people to exercise self-control and to more effectively regulate their emotions and behaviors, so that they can pursue valued goals.

"The importance of self-control and self-regulation for understanding human behavior are well known to social scientists, but the possibility that the links of religiosity to self-control might explain the links of religiosity to health and behavior has not received much explicit attention," said McCullough. "We hope our paper will correct this oversight in the scientific literature."

Some of the more intriguing conclusions that McCullough drew were:

Religious rituals such as prayer and meditation affect the parts of the human brain that are most important for self-regulation and self-control.
When people view their goals as "sacred," they put more energy and effort into pursuing those goals, and therefore, are probably more effective at attaining them.
Religious lifestyles may contribute to self-control by providing people with clear standards for their behavior, by causing people to monitor their own behavior more closely, and by giving people the sense that God is watching their behavior.
The fact that religious people tend to be higher in self-control helps explain why religious people are less likely to misuse drugs and alcohol and experience problems with crime and delinquency.
"By thinking of religion as a social force that provides people with resources for controlling their impulses [including the impulse for self-preservation, in the case of suicide bombers] in the service of higher goals, religion can motivate people to do just about anything," he concluded.

Interesting article.
Do the people who practice religion here find this to be true in their own life or did the psychologist get the study wrong?
I always thought a person's moral compass and not necessarily their religious background had more to do with their self control and success in life,but maybe I'm wrong.

This is no surprise. Religious people never feel "alone", have security in death, have rituals etc.

I mean no offense against religious people, but I feel happier and stronger because I dont put faith into what I dont think is real.

I say he's wrong. I'm pretty religious and I suffered with depression for years. In fact this is the first year that I haven't been depressed. I don't think religion plays a role in how happy a person is. My boyfriend is an athiest ( yes, Christians and Athiests can get along Laughing

) and he's never had depression and he's a whole lot more healthier than I am. Don't get me wrong, i'm happy and all, but religion doesn't really play a role in that. I'm happy because I have people around me that care alot about me and i'm very successful. The school part is a bunch of crap too. The last few years I have done really sucky in school. Everyone, no matter what religion has self control. Anyone can do it, they just have to put their mind to it. Religion has nothing to do with it. I know alot of religious people who do drugs, have depression and engage in so many dangerous activities.

I'm with SPF, I don't put all my energy into focusing on religion. Yes, religion is important to me, but it's not going to affect the decisions I make. That's where my morals come in. So in all I say the article is wrong.

I had a whole thing written here but I got the midnight boot.
So I'm not writing it again tongue

Too make a long story short. I do not agree with the article.
Most people get scared into doing things because of religion for fear of the punishments.
That is all.

There are studies that contradict that study. Here is a study (granted it focused more on the society at large and not at individuals) that paints a different picture.

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