Comments on: Male vs. female religiosity difference

By: rob

rob — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:00:34 +0000

Maybe higher male variance in IQ, coupled with members of more conservative/literal religions being dimmer leads to the conservative religions being more male?

why
psychics, fortune tellers etc tend to be women

Most of the people they fool are women too. Men who are good at tricking women aren't after money. They have lots of sex.

By: Eniola

Eniola — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:40:53 +0000

Another point to consider is the fact that women are more whole brained than men. better interhemispheric communication…generally means that women have better access to the “black box”

It is estimated that we are only consciously aware of about 10% or less of what our brains process. Women seem to be a bit more aware of some of this other 90% giving rise to the famous “woman’s intuition”. This is probably why
psychics, fortune tellers etc tend to be women. These may people who just happen to have access to a bit more of the black box.
So generally, women tend to be more aware of a feeling of “otherness”. Some feeling that there is some other power outside of our conscious control. This is likely what is generally interepreted as “God”.

By: SFG

SFG — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 04:37:05 +0000

Really? I am high in both SQ and Agreeableness. Am I just weird, or perhaps this is the B-brain that Baron-Cohen talks about? I think EQ may be narrower than Agreeableness. For instance, Agreeableness doesn't require facility in reading the emotions of others.

These are all average patterns, of course there are outliers. You can have both, and in fact you have the best of both worlds! ;)

There was a bit about autistic women in the Times; one of their problems was that they had a strong desire to interact but poor ability to interact successfully, so social isolation bothered them more than the men.

As an aside, the pen-and-paper RPG Blue Rose, which attempted to mimic the female-slanted fantasy genre, listed the differing traits of romantic fantasy from the remainder of the genre, and one of the principal ones was that the protagonist aims to enter a group, rather than be a lone wanderer. Given who likely reads the books, I don't think this is a coincidence.

By: HughRistik

HughRistik — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:58:38 +0000

Potentially higher EQ might lead to an increased interest in social interactions leading to Church membership; and/ or a more social/ less abstractly-systemizing (lower SQ) outlook on the world leading to a more anthropomorphic and animistic interpretation of the world.

This makes sense. Furthermore, I suspect that people with high SQ can conceive of the world running as a system, according to the laws of physics. High Systemizers see patterns in things that might seem chaotic and requiring of a metaphysical explanation to low SQ types.

EQ is pretty much identical with the Big 5 Trait Agreeableness

Really? I am high in both SQ and Agreeableness. Am I just weird, or perhaps this is the B-brain that Baron-Cohen talks about? I think EQ may be narrower than Agreeableness. For instance, Agreeableness doesn't require facility in reading the emotions of others.

By: whiskydrinker

whiskydrinker — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:48:08 +0000

Here’s an interesting question: if EQ types/women are both more susceptible to peer group pressure and more instinctively drawn to the idea of consciousness existing in everything, what happens when they are raised and socialised as atheists? Does atheism function as if it were a religion, with women locked into it socially and more likely to stay and men more likely to drift away to somewhere else, either actual religion or apathetic apathy? Or is the EQ “theory of mind” factor so strong that they tend to drift towards theism?
If the latter, is there any hope for an atheist world?

By: razib

razib — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:13:42 +0000

or a more social/ less abstractly-systemizing (lower SQ) outlook on the world leading to a more anthropomorphic and animistic interpretation of the world.

yes. i believe a large proportion of atheists simply don't find god as intuitively plausible as the normal human.

By: BGC

BGC — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:59:11 +0000

In a (currently unpublished) doctoral study I supervised, male female differences in religiosity correlated with Simon Baron Cohen's EQ empathizing quotient - and inversely with the SQ systemizing quotient (EQ is pretty much identical with the Big 5 Trait Agreeableness).

This personality difference 'explained' the sex difference in religiosity. In other words, equal-scoring on the EQ and SQ was associated with equal religiousness scores; and whether the subjects were males or females made no measurable difference. (But males and females have different average scores for both EQ and SQ - females higher for EQ and males higher for SQ.)

Assuming this is correct, the next question would be how differences in empathizing/ agreeableness and for systemizing might translate into differences in religiousness.

Potentially higher EQ might lead to an increased interest in social interactions leading to Church membership; and/ or a more social/ less abstractly-systemizing (lower SQ) outlook on the world leading to a more anthropomorphic and animistic interpretation of the world.

Or, to reverse causality (which is, I think, more plausible) - less empathic and more systemizing individuals are more likely to become atheists, because they are probably not interested in the sociability of churches, nor are they likely to interpret the world as if it were a set of social and personal relationships.

By: Paul S

Paul S — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:13:31 +0000

"I discarded China from the list of nations because it was such an outlier of irreligiosity"

That's one hell of an outlier -- one sixth of the population. What are the numbers when you factor that "outlier" back in?