Will Gervais asked 93 university students to rate their own belief in God and other supernatural agents such as angels. Then, several weeks later, they underwent "priming" for analytical thinking – they were asked to unscramble sentences that included words such as "ponder" and "rational", read text written in hard-to-read fonts, or even just look at a picture of Rodin's sculpture The ThinkerAfter tallying the results here is the conclusion:
The simplest way to explain these effects, the team conclude, is if intuitive thinking leads to belief, and analytical thinking suppresses or overrides this process. That gives analytical thinking a causal role in disbelief.
"Our results suggest that habitual analytical thinking could be one reason scientists tend to be disbelievers," notes Norenzayan. It also suggests that – as some religious people fear – exposure to science may erode belief, not just through discoveries such as evolution, but just by promoting analytical thinking.
But before secularists start putting copies of The Thinker in classrooms, Norenzayan warns that it isn't so simple. "Many things promote religious belief", such as fear of death, he says. "You can't turn a devout believer into an atheist just by encouraging analytical thinking. Other factors will sustain belief."