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
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Structured Imagination: the Role of Category Structure in Exemplar Generation
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 ).”
Result(1993) · Cited by 775
The modularity of thought and the epidemiology of representations
Sperber, D. (1994) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511752902.003 · Cited by 695
Domain-specific knowledge and conceptual change
Carey, S. E., & Spelke, E. S. (1994) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511752902.008 · Cited by 675
The Naturalness of Religious Ideas: A Cognitive Theory of Religion
Barrett, J. L., & Boyer, P. (1996) · Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion · doi:10.2307/1386422 · Cited by 541
Self-citationH., M. T. (1992) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 525
Cited by
Sorted by citations
On seeing human: A three-factor theory of anthropomorphism
Epley, N., Waytz, A., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2007) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.114.4.864 · Cited by 4,069
“…of God tend to match these beliefs, but their more informal descriptions of God's actual behavior show strong evidence of anthropomorphism, with God moving from one place to another, answering prayers in a serial fashion, or being unaware of certain events in the world (J. L. Barrett & Keil, 1996).”
BackgroundWho Sees Human?: The Stability and Importance of Individual Differences in Anthropomorphism
Waytz, A., Cacioppo, J., & Epley, N. (2010) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691610369336 · Cited by 1,228
“Measures have ranged from explicit questions about how much an agent looks or acts human (Kiesler & Goetz, 2002) to implicit measures of memory mistakes in which people recall supernatural agents behaving in humanlike ways (Barrett & Keil, 1996).”
BackgroundThe cultural evolution of prosocial religions
Norenzayan, A., Shariff, A. F., Gervais, W. M., Willard, A. K., McNamara, R. A., Slingerland, E., & Henrich, J. (2016) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x14001356 · Cited by 934
Destination Personality: An Application of Brand Personality to Tourism Destinations
Ekinci, Y., & Hosany, S. (2006) · Journal of Travel Research · doi:10.1177/0047287506291603 · Cited by 815
Folk biology and the anthropology of science: Cognitive universals and cultural particulars
Scott Atran, B. (1998) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x98001277 · Cited by 732
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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