Barking up the wrong tree

According to a newly published study, college students who viewed photos of attractive people of their own gender described themselves as "significantly more religious" than their peers. In contrast, viewing photos of attractive members of the opposite sex — that is, potential mates — had no impact on the personal piety meter.

Writing in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, researchers Yexin Jessica Li, Adam Cohen, Jason Weeden and Douglas Kenrick of Arizona State University describe two experiments examining romance and religiosity. In the first, 269 ASU students (97 men, 172 women) were randomly assigned to view personal profiles of either six attractive men or six attractive women. They were told their input would be used to improve the campus's online dating service.

Afterwards, they were asked to rate (on a 10-point scale) the extent to which they agreed with the following statements: "I believe in God;" "We'd be better off if religion played a bigger role in people's lives;" and "Religious beliefs are important to me in my everyday decisions."

The results: Women who read profiles of other women, and men who read profiles of available men, described higher levels of religiosity than those who learned about members of the opposite sex.