Religion and self-control

Praying Hands.

The Christian apologist Gary Habermas wrote: "Double-blind prayer experiments: three ... that have indeed worked were cases of orthodox-Christians praying for the sick."

Engaging in virtuous behavior and quenching temptations to engage in immoral behavior requires self-control.

According to the abstract of the 2021 journal article Does religion make people more self-controlled? A review of research from the lab and life published in the journal Current Opinion in Psychology: "We do find evidence, however, that rituals (most notably, prayer), along with exposure to religious environments and institutions in the real world (e.g. religious schooling) influence self-control on the scale of weeks, months, and years — a conclusion that is also supported by rigorous longitudinal research."

In the journal article Religion, self-regulation, and self-control: Associations, explanations, and implications, psychologists McCullough and Willoughby theorize that many of the positive links of religiousness with health and social behavior may be caused by religion's beneficial influences on self-control/self-regulation. Furthermore, a 2012 Queen's University study published in Psychological Science found that religion replenishes self-control.

Research of Andrew Newberg M.D. related to intense prayer

Research indicates that 12 minutes of daily intense prayer over an eight-week period can change the brain to such a degree that it can be measured on a brain scan. This method of prayer appears to increase activity in brain areas associated with social interaction and compassion/thoughtfulness. In addition, it increases frontal lobe activity as focus and intentionality increase.

In the journal article Religion, self-regulation, and self-control: Associations, explanations, and implications, psychologists McCullough and Willoughby theorize that many of the positive links of religiousness with health and social behavior may be caused by religion's beneficial influences on self-control/self-regulation. Furthermore, as noted above, a 2012 Queen's University study published in Psychological Science found that religion replenishes self-control. Also, numerous studies indicate that those who engage in regular spiritual practices have lower mortality rates.

Personal prayer buffers self-control depletion

The abstract for the 2014 journal article Personal prayer buffers self-control depletion published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology indicates:

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The strength model of self-control has inspired large amounts of research and contributed to a deeper understanding of the temporal dynamics underlying self-control. Several studies have identified factors that can counteract self-control depletion, but relatively little is known about factors that can prevent depletion effects. Here we tested the hypothesis that a brief period of personal prayer would buffer self-control depletion effects. Participants either briefly prayed or thought freely before engaging (or not engaging) in an emotion suppression task. All participants completed a Stroop task subsequently. Individuals who had thought freely before suppressing emotions showed impaired Stroop performance compared to those who had not suppressed emotions. This effect did not occur in individuals who had prayed at the beginning of the study. These results are consistent with and contribute to a growing body of work attesting to the beneficial effects of praying on self-control.

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