Reflective thinking predicts disbelief in God across 19 countries

There is considerable uncertainty about how thinking style relates to religious belief. In the present study, we tested three hypotheses about relationships between reflective thinking, intuitive thinking (both measured using the Cognitive Reflection Test; CRT) and belief in God or gods (BiG) across 19 culturally and geographically diverse countries (n = 7,771). In support of our first hypothesis, we found an overall negative relationship between reflective thinking and BiG; and in support of our second hypothesis, we found an overall positive relationship between intuitive thinking and BiG. Contrary to our third hypothesis, we found no evidence that completing the CRT before eliciting BiG influenced BiG scores by priming reflective thinking. Given that this is the first large cross-cultural test of these hypotheses to have a preregistered analysis plan, to hold education constant across countries, and to use both Bayesian and frequentist methods, these results considerably bolster the evidence in support of the first two hypotheses and against the third hypothesis.