[Serious] Link between brain damage and religious fundamentalism established

[Fake Messiah]

A link between brain damage and religious fundamentalism has now been established by scientists

journal Neuropsychologia has shown that religious fundamentalism is, in part, the result of a functional impairment in a brain region known as the prefrontal cortex. The findings suggest that damage to particular areas of the prefrontal cortex indirectly promotes religious fundamentalism by diminishing cognitive flexibility and openness—a psychology term that describes a personality trait which involves dimensions like curiosity, creativity, and open-mindedness.

According to Dr. Grafman and his team, since religious fundamentalism involves a strict adherence to a rigid set of beliefs, cognitive flexibility and open-mindedness present a challenge for fundamentalists. As such, they predicted that participants with lesions to either the vmPFC or the dlPFC would score low on measures of cognitive flexibility and trait openness and high on measures of religious fundamentalism.

The results showed that, as expected, damage to the vmPFC and dlPFC was associated with religious fundamentalism. Further tests revealed that this increase in religious fundamentalism was caused by a reduction in cognitive flexibility and openness resulting from the prefrontal cortex impairment. 

These findings are important because they suggest that impaired functioning in the prefrontal cortex—whether from brain trauma, a psychological disorder, a drug or alcohol addiction, or simply a particular genetic profile—can make an individual susceptible to religious fundamentalism. And perhaps in other cases, extreme religious indoctrination harms the development or proper functioning of the prefrontal regions in a way that hinders cognitive flexibility and openness.

https://www.salon.com/2019/01/08/a-link-...s_partner/

[bennyboy]

Very interesting, indeed. Careful of a false syllogism, though. Just because brain damage will predispose one toward fundamentalism, it doesn't necessarily follow that fundamentalists are generally brain damaged.

[Gwaithmir]

Very interesting, indeed.  Careful of a false syllogism, though.  Just because brain damage will predispose one toward fundamentalism, it doesn't necessarily follow that fundamentalists are generally brain damaged.

True, but I'm still going to spring this one on the Jehovah's Witnesses next time they visit.

[Angrboda]

These findings are important because they suggest that impaired functioning in the prefrontal cortex—whether from brain trauma, a psychological disorder, a drug or alcohol addiction, or simply a particular genetic profile—can make an individual susceptible to religious fundamentalism. And perhaps in other cases, extreme religious indoctrination harms the development or proper functioning of the prefrontal regions in a way that hinders cognitive flexibility and openness.

https://www.salon.com/2019/01/08/a-link-...s_partner/

The former is fine. The latter seems like reckless speculation unrelated to the substance of their research. The finding would appear to show that deficiencies in brain function can result in religious fundamentalism in some people. I think some might be tempted to then make the hasty generalization that deficiencies in brain function are at the root of religious fundamentalism in many, most, or all cases. That would be an error.

[onlinebiker]

I could have told you that...

Anytime a JW or Mormon shows up at my house - I think - " here' s one who' s mom dropped on his head one too many times"....

[robvalue]

Sure, in some cases. But ruthless indoctrination and being surrounded by people who are all similarly fundamentalists is bound to produce such results too. It would be a pretty abnormal person who could resist such psychological conditioning, or to even notice it’s happening.

Most people behave in a very dogmatic, closed-minded way about one subject or another. Everyone is susceptible to programming.

[Lemon Curry]

Very interesting, indeed.  Careful of a false syllogism, though.  Just because brain damage will predispose one toward fundamentalism, it doesn't necessarily follow that fundamentalists are generally brain damaged.

True, but I'm still going to spring this one on the Jehovah's Witnesses next time they visit.

In my experience of jovies, they won't have clue 1 about what you are talking about, they'll change the subject and talk about something they claim to know something about, until you prove that they don't, then they'll tell you "that's just your opinion and tell you that you and they will just have to agree to disagree".

[robvalue]

Maybe this shows that severe indoctrination is abuse which has serious physical consequences. I would assume none of this is really unique to religion, there’s nothing special about it.

[Mister Agenda]

People with certain types of brain damage tending to be religious fundamentalists is not the same thing as religious fundamentalists having a certain type of brain damage. All canoes are boats but not all boats are canoes. There needs to be a prevalence study that yields the percentage of fundamentalists who have this type of brain damage vs. the general population before any generalization to religious fundamentalists in general is justified. People with autism are more likely to be atheists than the gen pop, that doesn't mean that atheism is caused by autism.

[John 6IX Breezy]

I think the vmPFC is mostly known for its intermediate role between emotion and decision making, as well as impulse control. Anyone who has heard of the famous Phineas Gage has, as a result, heard of the consequences of damaging the vmPFC. When it comes to the also famous trolley problem (the part where you're asked to push a fat man onto the tracks), damage to the vmPFC makes people less hesitant to make the push (since its the "logical" solution). To a large extent its as if you are removing emotion from the person, leaving them only to consider the logical or theoretical approach to things.

Rather than low cognitive flexibility and openness being responsible for fundamentalist attitudes in these individuals, I do wonder if it is the lack of emotion. I'm not an expert on what fundamentalists are exactly, but the name does conjure up images of someone that thinks too strictly about religious ideas but seems to lack the emotion or empathy that would help balance those ideas out. Low flexibility and openness seem more like by-products of this biased emotion-reason interplay, than the actual root of fundamentalisms.

Regardless, others have already pointed out that the findings don't imply fundamentalists have brain damage. From what I read in the OP, the study just shows that damage to this area leads to low openness and cognitive flexibility, and that's it. How these traits manifests themselves could be highly variable; it just so happens that the researchers were looking to correlate it with religious fundamentalisms specifically. But I wouldn't be surprised if it also correlated with very strict-minded atheists as well; since you can be closed off and inflexible in whatever beliefs or ideas you hold.