Error processing and religious conviction: A multi-lab replication

One function of religion might be to reduce cognitive conflict and anxiety. In a highlycited paper, Inzlicht and colleagues’ Study 1 (2009) assessed the association between selfreported religious zeal and conflict monitoring. Conflict monitoring was measured using the error-related negativity (ERN), an event-related potential that is sensitive to the conflict between an erroneous behavioral response and cognitive representation/knowledge of the correct response. Results showed that individuals with higher levels of self-reported religious zeal had smaller ERNs on a color-word Stroop task, suggesting less cognitive conflict when faced with opposing response tendencies leading to errors. In addition, individuals higher in religious zeal were slower and more accurate on incongruent trials, suggesting deliberate responding in which they sacrificed speed for accuracy. Work that has examined closely related concepts (e.g., religious fundamentalism) has failed to corroborate Inzlicht and colleagues’ (2009) findings, though other work has provided broad support for the original results. No direct replication of Inzlicht and colleagues (2009) has been attempted. As part of the #EEGManyLabs initiative (Pavlov et al., 2021), we will perform an international, multi-site replication of Study 1 from Inzlicht and colleagues (2009).