Study Finds Brain Damage & Religious Fundamentalism Linked.

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A study published in the 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.

The study can be found in Neuropsychologia, Volume 100, June 2017, Pages 18-25.

Click on the link below to view the abstract, then click on "[+] Show more" to view the complete study.

Link to Abstract

Explains the extreme actions and rhetoric of religious fundamentalists of all faiths.

I wonder, since religious fundamentalism tends to run in families, if an impaired area of the prefrontal cortex could be hereditary, not just the result of a TBI.

I’ve known fundamentalists who were highly intelligent, but they were certainly also cognitively rigid and inflexible.

It is fair to note that not all brain-damaged people are religious fundamentalists, and not all religious fundamentalists are brain-damaged.  However...

I have to wonder about certain people when I read things like: "Individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) often suffer impairments in cognitive flexibility as a result of damage to areas controlling executive processes, such as the PFC (Pre-Frontal Cortex)" and "previous research indicates that certain forms of religiosity are associated with a preference for certainty and avoidance of uncertainty" and "these findings predict that fundamentalism may be related to reduced cognitive flexibility and trait openness, and that these cognitive strategies critically rely on processing in the PFC".

Religious fundamentalists who cannot be reasoned with may simply be too brain-damaged to be capable of reason and logical thought-processes.

Note also that the participants in the study were "male combat veterans recruited from the W.F. Caveness Vietnam Head Injury Study Registry".  That is, the participants were combat veterans who had receive traumatic brain injuries during combat operations.

Whether by domestic violence, traditional family employment (i.e., construction, mining, et cetera), alcohol or drug use, incestuous inbreeding, or community religious indoctrination, it does not surprise me that religious fundamentalism would run in families.

Perhaps conspiracy theorists have the same problem. It can be equally impossible to reason with them. A lot of fundamentalists believe in conspiracy theories, too. Some of their beliefs in and of themselves beliefs could be classified as such.

A lot of these groups have low retention rates but perhaps the young devout believers are carrying on the family flaw although, as you say, it could be a number of factors.

I suspect a huge overlap in that Venn diagram...

I feel like certain brain lesions can lead to religious fundamentalism.

But I don't believe a person who is a religious fundamentalist is necessarily "brain-damaged," despite what I would describe as quite a few flaws in their thinking.

Feelings and beliefs are irrelevant to scientific studies.

I would like it if they would do a more comprehensive study with many more subjects who are not veterans.

But why is their thinking flawed and why are they so resistant to sound argument?

“Brain-damaged” might be a strong adjective to use because of the specific connotations we associate with it, but I think the evidence is compelling and worthy of further research.

You mean like making an MRI of the brain part of a plea agreement in cases where people plead "Freedom of religious practice" in cases like several years ago when all those abortion clinics were shot up?

Brain-damage is brain-damage, why make it out to be a topic to be avoided?

The study (and others like it) point to one thing: A link between trauma to the brain, impaired reasoning functions, and religious fundamentalism.  In other words, a damaged brain cannot reason well and turns to religion.  I cannot count the number of times I have been in a discussion regarding proven scientific facts, only to be told that while my facts were good and my reasoning was sound, I was still wrong because their beliefs were right and that's all there was to it.

Most of those people were drunks, drug-addicts, helmet-less sports players (football, rugby, soccer), or people who could not complete a formal education beyond elementary school (for whatever reason). Everything about the study matches my personal experiences. After reading through the study (and downloading a copy), I had a "That Makes Sense" moment unlike any since those psychiatrists confirmed my ASD (e.g., PDD-NOS + PTSD).

Now, if I can find a counter-study -- one that proves some kind of 'Divine Intervention', perhaps -- then I will reconsider my opinion. Do you know of any valid counter-studies?

I’m not arguing that it’s not “brain damage.” That’s what the evidence points to. When people think of brain damage, they often envision something more severe. I’d imagine that various forms of brain damage are more common than the average person thinks.

With a hereditarily brain damaged prefrontal cortex, I’m wondering if we would call it more of a malformation. It doesn’t really matter. This is just linguistics.

People might be stumbled by the imagined sensationalism of “brain-damaged.”

This is an incredibly important thing to research, especially when considering problems like suicide cults, suicide bombers, any number of harmful religious fundamentalist groups, or political cults.

And it’s helpful when one is dealing with annoying relatives.

What is the nature of the "damage?"

I still believe there should be a more comprehensive study of this.

And I believe there should be corroborative results found in other studies of this nature.