Cognitive Pathways to Belief in Karma and Belief in God

Supernatural beliefs are ubiquitous around the world, and mounting evidence indicates that these partly rely on intuitive, cross-culturally recurrent cognitive processes. Specifically, past research has focused humans' intuitive tendency to perceive minds as part of foundations belief in a personified God—an agentic, morally concerned supernatural entity. However, much less is known about karma—another culturally widespread but ostensibly non-agentic entity reflecting ethical causation across reincarnations. In two studies four high-powered samples, including mostly Christian Canadians Hindu Indians (Study 1, N = 2,006) Americans Singaporean Buddhists 2, 1,752), we provide first systematic empirical investigation intuitions underlying various forms karma. We used path analyses (a) replicate tests previously documented predictors God, (b) test whether this same network variables predicts karma, (c) examine relative contributions cultural both sets beliefs. found tendencies toward thinking, mentalizing, dualism, teleological thinking predicted variety karma—including laden, non-agentic, agentic conceptualizations—above beyond variability explained by learning karma cultures. These results further for an independent role culture cognition supporting diverse types distinct contexts.