Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Individual differences in reflectiveness have been found topredict belief in God. We hypothesize that this associationmay be due to a broader inclination for intuitive thinkers toendorse teleological explanations. In support of ourhypothesis, we find that scientifically unfounded teleologicalexplanations are more likely to be endorsed by intuitive compared to analytical thinkers, and that those who endorse teleological explanations are more likely to have religious beliefs.