American Christians think that if they were to face a near-death experience, head toward the light, and see the face of God, the encounter might be akin to looking in a mirror.
A study published in the journal PLOS ONE on Monday found that people don't picture the wizardly, bearded man of cartoon lore when they think of God. Instead, they picture a face that looks similar to their own.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Most participants selected images that looked more like them or reflected their personal worldview, the study found. Younger people pointed to younger images; conventionally attractive people pointed to more conventionally attractive representations. To a lesser extent, people were also biased toward images that showed their own race. The biggest discrepancy? Women and men both pictured a male God.
Political views played a role, too. Liberal Christians were more likely to select feminine faces that appeared younger and "more loving." Conservative Christians largely picked Caucasian images that were "more powerful."
"People's tendency to believe in a God that looks like them is consistent with an egocentric bias," said UNC professor Kurt Gray, the study's senior author. The result of that bias is apparently an image of Jesus' father who looks a bit more like his brother. Read the full study at PLOS ONE. Summer Meza
-
August 23 editorial cartoonsCartoons Saturday's political cartoons include deficit dimness, steamroller-in-chief, and more
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstancesSpeed Read
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2Speed Read
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governorSpeed Read
-
Los Angeles city workers stage 1-day walkout over labor conditionsSpeed Read
-
Mega Millions jackpot climbs to an estimated $1.55 billionSpeed Read
-
Bangladesh dealing with worst dengue fever outbreak on recordSpeed Read
-
Glacial outburst flooding in Juneau destroys homesSpeed Read
-
Scotland seeking 'monster hunters' to search for fabled Loch Ness creatureSpeed Read
