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

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48. As often, the claims made go well beyond anything that the study shows

The sort of 'self-control' tasks that are likely to be used in psychology experiments tend to involve planning for a long-term goal, and inhibiting responses that might be more immediately gratifying but detract from the goal. Thus, they tend to involve attention and the ability to keep a goal in mind while acting toward its fulfilment - the sort of thing that comes under the umbrella term of 'executive function' - much more than any moral aspect.

It may be that religious phrases focus attention more than neutral phrases. It may even be that as many people associate religion with long-term planning (from 'if I do X I'm more likely to go to Heaven' to 'these are my goals for spiritual growth'), the religious phrases lead, while in that context, to a greater tendency to focus on long-term goals. It may be that any phrase that relates to something emotionally important to an individual (e.g. concerning close family members) or to long-term planning (e.g. studies or career) may put people into a less impulsive, more goal-oriented, and/or more attentive mindset. In order to draw conclusions from the study, it would be necessary to compare the religious phrases with other emotionally important or goal-related phrases, and not just neutral phrases. Also, it is important to see whether religious people react differently from nonreligious people. It may be that some of these controls were included in the study, but the report doesn't say so.

In any case, 'Thinking about religious sentences makes people act less impulsively in an experimental task' is not the same thing as saying 'Religion generally improves people's self-control'.