• blahsay@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    The cause for the atrophy is hard to prove exactly for obvious reasons but it seems to be in the part of the brain used for critical reasoning. Could be stress too. Either way yes, you can spot the religious because their brains are a bit shrunken

    • Liz@midwest.social
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      10 months ago

      Emphasis mine.

      The authors offer the hypothesis that the greater hippocampal atrophy in selected religious groups might be related to stress. They argue that some individuals in the religious minority, or those who struggle with their beliefs, experience higher levels of stress. This causes a release of stress hormones that are known to depress the volume of the hippocampus over time. This might also explain the fact that both non-religious as well as some religious individuals have smaller hippocampal volumes.

      You can’t look at a person’s brain to determine if they’re religious or not.

      • blahsay@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Eh that just means it’s not an exact science and there are exceptions like anything. You’ll find qualified statements like that in any good scientific study.

        • uis@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          We found correlation

          It’s not science

          ???

          Just in case correlation != causation.

          • blahsay@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Pfff the theory gravity is not an absolute. Most things that go up come down though.

            What you want is a solid P value in a study, large datasets and a significant result, which that study finds.