Dios cree en la crisis

En su número del 7 de febrero, New Scientist publica un par de artículos relativos al sistema que controla las creencias irracionales. Ambos tratan, de una forma u otra, acerca de cómo los episodios de crisis como el que estamos viviendo inclinan la balanza hacia el lado de los unicornios rosas. El artículo principal, Born believers: How your brain creates God, empieza de la siguiente manera:

WHILE many institutions collapsed during the Great Depression that began in 1929, one kind did rather well. During this leanest of times, the strictest, most authoritarian churches saw a surge in attendance.

This anomaly was documented in the early 1970s, but only now is science beginning to tell us why. It turns out that human beings have a natural inclination for religious belief, especially during hard times. Our brains effortlessly conjure up an imaginary world of spirits, gods and monsters, and the more insecure we feel, the harder it is to resist the pull of this supernatural world. It seems that our minds are finely tuned to believe in gods.

Me resulta difícil entender ese mecanismo que dice que es mucho más reconfortante estar jodido por un glorioso plan divino de caminos inescrutables que por unas circunstancias a veces incomprensibles. El artículo menciona justamente un estudio publicado hace poco en la revista Science que relacionaba la sensación de pérdida de control con una mayor capacidad de percepción de patrones allí donde no los hay: Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception. Únicamente el resumen está disponible en la web, pero es bastante explicativo:

We present six experiments that tested whether lacking control increases illusory pattern perception, which we define as the identification of a coherent and meaningful interrelationship among a set of random or unrelated stimuli. Participants who lacked control were more likely to perceive a variety of illusory patterns, including seeing images in noise, forming illusory correlations in stock market information, perceiving conspiracies, and developing superstitions. Additionally, we demonstrated that increased pattern perception has a motivational basis by measuring the need for structure directly and showing that the causal link between lack of control and illusory pattern perception is reduced by affirming the self. Although these many disparate forms of pattern perception are typically discussed as separate phenomena, the current results suggest that there is a common motive underlying them.

El otro artículo publicado en New Scientist va directamente al corazón de lo que comentaba al principio: The credit crunch could be a boon for irrational belief:

When human beings lose control over their lives, they become more prone to superstition, spiritual searchings and conspiracy theories.

Some of these losses of control are self-inflicted: studies show that people in risky professions – deep-sea fishermen and sky-divers, for example – perform a greater number of superstitious rituals than those with safe desk jobs. Others, though, are a response to circumstances. For example, people living in high-risk areas of the Middle East, such as Tel Aviv, are much more likely to carry a lucky charm or avoid walking under ladders. A 2007 study showed that the growth rate of evangelical churches in the US jumps 50 per cent with the downturn of each economic cycle. The global downturn is no different: church leaders (and psychics) are now reporting brisk business.

Los charlatanes, lleven turbante, túnicas negras con alzacuellos blancos, echen las cartas o pinchen muñecos, parecen tener un futuro prometedor precisamente ahora. Quizá la campaña de los autobuses ateos tendría que haber sido enfocada de otra forma: