Study: Religious have more self-control

MAIMI, Fla., Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Religious people have more self-control than their less religious counterparts do, a University of Miami professor has concluded.

Michael McCullough said the findings imply that religious people may be better at pursuing and achieving long-term goals that are important to them and their religious groups. This, in turn, might help explain why religious people tend to have lower rates of substance abuse, better school achievement, less delinquency, better health behaviors, less depression and longer lives, McCullough said.

McCullough evaluated eight decades worth of research on religion, which has been conducted in diverse samples of people from around the world. He said he found persuasive evidence from a variety of domains within the social sciences -- including neuroscience, economics, psychology and sociology -- that religious beliefs and religious behaviors are capable of encouraging people to exercise self-control and more effectively regulate their emotions and behaviors so they can pursue valued goals.

The study, published in Psychological Bulletin, says religious rituals such as prayer and meditation affect the parts of the human brain that are most important for self-regulation and self-control.

Religious lifestyles may contribute to self-control by providing people with clear standards for their behavior, by causing people to monitor their behavior more closely and by giving people the sense that God is watching their behavior.