The DOI matches its Crossref record; 32 of the 32 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Conceptualizing a Nonnatural Entity: Anthropomorphism in God Concepts
Open accessAbstract
We investigate the problem of how nonnatural entities are represented by examining university students' concepts of God, both professed theological beliefs and concepts used in comprehension of narratives. In three story processing tasks, subjects often used an anthropomorphic God concept that is inconsistent with stated theological beliefs; and drastically distorted the narratives without any awareness of doing so. By heightening subjects' awareness of their theological beliefs, we were able to manipulate the degree of anthropomorphization. This tendency to anthropomorphize may be generalizable to other agents. God (and possibly other agents) is unintentionally anthropomorphized in some contexts, perhaps as a means of representing poorly understood nonnatural entities.
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“In a similar fashion, minds never free themselves entirely from their mortal coil: the dead continue to be imagined as possessing ethereal bodies resembling those they ' possessed ' in life, as well as being subject to the sorts of physical limitations typically imposed by bodies. 39”
From Body and Mind in Early China: An Integrated Humanities–Science Approach (2013) · cites this paper as Barrett 1996
In the citing paper
“In a similar fashion, minds never free themselves entirely from their mortal coil: the dead continue to be imagined as possessing ethereal bodies resembling those they ' possessed ' in life, as well as being subject to the sorts of physical limitations typically imposed by bodies. 39”
From Body and Mind in Early China: An Integrated Humanities–Science Approach (2013) · cites this paper as Barrett and Keil 1996
Citations
Cites
Nagel, T. (1974) · The Philosophical Review · doi:10.2307/2183914 · Cited by 7,440
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Ward, T. B. (1994) · Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1006/cogp.1994.1010 · Cited by 828 · cited 1×
“Similarly, the results of these studies could be understood as a case of structured imagination ( Ward, 1994; 1995 ).”
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“Contextual (Astuti, 2015; Barrett & Kiel, 1996).”
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“Yet experiments by Barrett purportedly show that anthropomorphic, theologically incorrect understandings of God caused by unconscious mechanisms typically override the participants’ theologically correct conscious beliefs (Barrett 1998; Barrett and Keil 1996).”
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“Using such methods, researchers have found that Americans consistently tend to view God as omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and eternal (Barrett & Keil, 1996; Foster & Keating, 1992; Gorsuch, 1968; Roberts, 1989; Spilka et al., 1964).”
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“In a similar fashion, religious adherents draw on their social position to endow God with human characteristics, capabilities, and inclinations (Barrett and Keil 1996; Bender 2008; Cerulo and Barra 2008).”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Barrett, J. L., & Keil, F. C.
- Affiliations
- Cornell University (US)
- Venue
- Cognitive Psychology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1996-12
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 219-247
- ISSN
- 0010-0285 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2166757416
- Cited by
- 769
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 84 · 2019: 48 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 29 · 2015: 26 · 2014: 32 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 23
- FWCI
- 7.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Cognitive Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Oxford University Research Archive (ORA) (University of Oxford) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01-HD23922, R01HD023922)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Language, Metaphor, and Cognition
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Study and Philosophy of Religion
- Keywords
- anthropomorphism, concept of God, theological beliefs, narrative comprehension
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Analysis of Variance, Cognition, Concept Formation, Culture, Humans, Mental Recall, Religion and Psychology, Metaphor, Intuition
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