Updated: 22/02/2024 por Jennifer Delgado | Published: 29/12/2023
The tendency to believe in powerful gods is as old as man himself and crosses different cultures and societies. To a large extent, these religious beliefs are based on our deep desire for security. Believing in the existence of divine justice satisfies our need to perceive the world as a structured, ordered and non-random place.
Without a doubt, believing in God comforts us in difficult times and can give us the strength we need when we are about to falter, but like everything in life, it can also have an unsuspected “side effect”: it encourages us to take more risks.
Risks!? Yes, but according to its moral valence
In the popular imagination there is the idea that religious people tend to take fewer risks. And it is not a completely wrong, since previous research has shown that religious people are less likely to expose themselves to risks that have immoral connotations, such as taking drugs or engaging in gambling.
However, it has also been noted that they feel compelled to take “morally positive” risks, such as helping someone in need. Now a team of psychologists from the University of British Columbia analyzed a group of 264 Christian people to assess their propensity for morally neutral risks, such as climbing mountains, moving to another city to seek new career opportunities or establishing relationships.
They found that when religious beliefs are activated, the tendency to choose riskier options increases, especially among people who were convinced that God would protect them from harm.
Curiously, it is not the first study to reach these results. Almost a decade earlier, psychologists at Stanford University conducted a similar experiment in which they asked nearly 900 people to choose between different options that involved different levels of risk, such as looking at an extremely bright color that could slightly harm their eye health in exchange for money or look at a darker, more harmless color.
The researchers found that participants who had been reminded of the existence of God before making their choice were more likely to opt for the dangerous version of the experiment (95.5%) than those whose religious beliefs had not been activated (84.3%). They concluded that “Exposure to the concept of God may actually increase people’s willingness to take certain risks.”
When God becomes a safety net
Believing in God activates a feeling of security, it is as if it becomes a kind of containment network that makes us feel calmer and more confident to dare to take the leap. In fact, many of the people who participated in the study believed that God would protect them from negative consequences, so they felt safer when engaging in potentially dangerous or uncertain activities.
Obviously, this perception is part of a broader set of religious beliefs that help us deal with uncertainty, fear, and the stressors of everyday life, while allowing us to gain confidence and security.
That conviction is not negative when we need to make a vital change or have to face uncertain situations. In fact, it helps us feel better about taking risks. However, it is important to be aware of the existence of this “bias” because it could also push us to take unnecessary risks thinking that we have an invulnerable safety net.
Experiments have also revealed that people who believed in God not only thought they would be more protected, but also perceived various risk behaviors to be less dangerous. That is, believing in God reduces our perception of risk.
Likewise, being convinced that everything will turn out well can cause us to underestimate or undervalue the obstacles and dangers that we may encounter along the way or to fail to take into account the capabilities and resources we need to carry out said enterprise. In the long run, that faith can become a boomerang that causes us to fail and generate frustration.
It is no coincidence that these same psychologists verified that when divine protection did not materialize, people experienced more negative emotions, feeling more frustrated, desolate and disappointed than those who obtained the same results, but did not show a religious bias.
One solution to avoid this bias, reduce risks, and increase the chances of things going better is to follow an old English proverb that says: “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and take whatever comes your way.”
References:
White, J. M. et. Al. (2024) Do reminders of God increase willingness to take risks? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology; 110: 104539
Laurin, K. & Kay, A. C. (2017) The Motivational Underpinnings of Belief in God. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology; 56: 201-257.
Kupor, D. M. et. Al. (2015) Anticipating divine protection? Reminders of god can increase nonmoral risk taking. Psychological Science; 26(4): 374–384.
