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People who feel lonely or isolated are more likely to believe in God and the supernatural, according to a new study published this month.
Lonely people try to create social connections by reaching out to old friends, making new ones, or as the study suggests, believing in a higher being.
“We found that inducing people to feel lonely made them more religious essentially,” said University of Chicago researcher Nicholas Epley, who led the study, according to LiveScience.com.
Epley and his team induced a group of students to feel lonely by showing a clip from “Cast Away,” a movie where the main character is deserted on a remote island, and told them to empathize with the protagonists.
In another part of the study, the “lonely” group was told to fill out a personality questionnaire and then researchers read computer-generated results that predicted the students would be lonely later in life.
“We tried to manipulate their loneliness, to make them feel lonely,” Epley explained.
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In both parts, students in the “lonely” group expressed stronger belief in the supernatural compared to the control group. Researcher Epley noted however, that being more likely to be religious will not cause any sudden conversion. The study also found that lonely people tended to humanize pets.
For the personality experiment, “lonely” group participants were told to rate their belief in God, the devil, angels, ghosts, miracles and curses before filling out the personality questionnaire. They were then asked again to rate their belief in the supernatural after being read statements from the computer that implied they would be lonely later in life.
Half of the students were told they would be lonely, while the other half, the control group, was told they would be well connected socially in life.
Those in the “lonely group” reported stronger belief in God and the supernatural than the “connected group.” The “lonely group” also showed stronger belief after they heard the computer statement than before the report.
The University of Chicago researcher explained that previously humans depended on the community to survive and for safety, and “complete isolation or ostracism has been tantamount to a death sentence.”
Although group living is not essential for survival in the modern world, feeling socially connected is. Feeling disconnected and lonely is a painful emotional state for people and can lead to heath problems, both physically and mentally, according to Epley.
“Being socially isolated is just not good for you,” he said.
Epley and his team plan to pursue the issue further to see if anthropomorphized, or humanizing, pets and supernatural agents is responsible for alleviating the feeling of loneliness.
“There are health benefits that come from being connected to other people, and those same benefits seem to come from connection with pets and religious agents, too,” Epley said.
The detailed study is published in the February issue of the journal “Psychological Science.”
