INTERVIEW: Michael Pasek

Question 1

What did he study?

Answer 1

When people are asked to think about god, they are more prosocial

and more equal in a challenge

Question 2

Which questions most guide his work?

Answer 2

How our identities and beliefs interact to shape intergroup attitudes and how we see the world

A lot on religion

Question 3

What ideas motivated him to do this paper? (why god?)

Answer 3

Gordon Alport: “The role of religion is paradoxical, it makes and unmakes prejudice”

So what are the forces for the mixing and unmixing of prejudice

AND where do these beliefs come from? How do they spread?

Religion spreads prosocial behaviour to other religious people

Question 4

How was his sample impressive?

Answer 4

People from all over the world

Also ppl within various specific identities

Question 5

What were the data collection processes in this paper?

Answer 5

Had people from different areas recruit people

Question 6

Participants needed to believe in: “A moral god who cares about how ppl act and treat each other”

does he think this is a necessary condition?

Answer 6

He ran a tests study and atheists don’t show the same effects

Find that the universalism of god (how big u think he is) impacts behaviour

Question 7

Did thinking about god only make u be more prosocial with other believers?

Answer 7

Worked most on other believers

also worked a bit on atheists

So commonality (fellow believers in god) weren’t moderating the results (more prosocial)

Question 7

So what is the mechanism?

Answer 7

Their hypothesis: What type of god u believe in

If you believe in a hateful god: expect more negative beliefs

If believe in all loving god, who cares about every creation = more positive

Question 8

Would the results change if you asked other big questions?

(ex. how would the ideal citizen act)

Answer 8

Prosocial response isn’t unique to god

The use of god in the study also tells us how these beliefs got so widespread, and how people think

Question 9

What future directions would he like to see?

Answer 9

We found this effect, can we flip it in any way?

in diff contexts, can moral beliefs activate diff behaviours

Religion might promote pro social behaviour, but it also makes existing biases worse (not the solution for intergroup relations)