Queen's study finds religion helps us gain self-control

[MarkCharles]

1. Nothing like making great leaps of faith in order to...

come up with the desired conclusion, namely:

"religion helps us gain self-control"

This "study" is a great example of how a poorly constructed "experiment" can fail to take into account so many other variables among the participants. Simple variables like age, verbal intelligence level, time of day and relative initial comfort of participants, to name just a few.

The report from the link fails to mention such critical information as:

number of participants, (2 or 2000?)

ages and similarities of participants, (are they 15 or 65?, college students or prisoners?)

religious background and training of participants, (or are any them not religiously affiliated at all?)

or even what the specific frustration tasks such as the "enduring discomfort" or "delayed gratification" actually were.

In other words, how do we know that the participants were all "otherwise equal" in abilities to perform any and all of these tasks?

Sounds like pseudo-science, at best, to me, and a very poorly constructed example at that.

There is also no link to the peer review of this study.

So I did a little Googling: I found Kevin Rounding, PhD candidate at Queens University, where he lists his already formed conclusions on none other than his own Linkedin page.

"In a secondary line of research, I study the influence of religion on flourishing and positive outcomes despite negative developmental trajectories. I am interested in how religion serves to buffer against the deleterious effects of parental depression and uncertainty regarding social interactions, and serves as a catalyst in the formation and strengthening of ego resources. By serving to moderate negative outcomes, and mediating negative relationships, religiosity is a powerful influence in people's lives, providing comfort and a source of self-control."

http://ca.linkedin.com/in/kevinrounding

If this experiment were presented as part of a Ph.D. thesis, it would be torn apart for sloppiness of design.