MENTAL HEALTH, RELIGION & CULTURE

2018, VOL. 21, NO. 5, 534–545

https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2018.1512564

Intrinsic religiosity protects believers from the existential fear

of a human Jesus
Robert Britton Arrowood, Cathy R. Cox, Maddie Weinstock and Jill Hoffman
Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, USA

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The present study examined the role of internalised religious beliefs Received 11 May 2018
in defending against existential concerns aroused from a creaturely Accepted 13 August 2018
Jesus. Prior work has found that biologically human traits (e.g.,
KEYWORDS
vomiting, sweating, etc.) can increase death concerns when Terror management theory;
applied to both humans and a god. Intrinsic beliefs, however, intrinsic religiosity;
have been shown to reduce mortality awareness. In the current creatureliness; fear of death;
study, religious participants were primed with thoughts of either a existential anxiety
human or neutral Jesus followed by a single item measure about
fear of death. A moderated regression analysis found that whereas
high intrinsic individuals were buffered from existential concerns,
low intrinsic individuals experienced a greater fear of death when
primed with a human Jesus. These results replicate prior work
within terror management theory and the psychology of religion
suggesting that internalised beliefs serve a protective function
against existential anxieties.

Many religions provide accounts of their god(s) descending to take on human form. For
example, the pantheon of the ancient Greeks often assumed humanity to meet their bio-
logical desires (e.g., eating, sex). In the Christian theology, Jesus assumed a human form to
eventually die. Whereas these biological behaviours (eating, death, sex) are fundamental
parts of the human experience, prior work has found that the creaturely body is proble-
matic because it reminds us of our similarity to “lesser” animals (Goldenberg, 2005).
When applied to gods, however, it appears that these biological traits are equally as con-
cerning as they threaten believers’ perceptions of their divinity (Arrowood & Cox, 2018).
Building on prior work within terror management theory (TMT; Greenberg, Pyszczynski,
& Solomon, 1986) and concerns with a human Jesus (Beck, 2008), the present work exam-
ined existential concerns associated with a human Jesus among Christians. Specifically,
whereas intrinsically religious people should be shielded from existential concerns associ-
ated with a human Jesus due to internalised beliefs (Jonas & Fischer, 2006), low intrinsically
religious people should experience greater fears about mortality after reading about a
creaturely Jesus.

CONTACT Robert Britton Arrowood r.b.arrowood@tcu.edu

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
 MENTAL HEALTH, RELIGION & CULTURE 535

TMT, religion, and creatureliness

TMT was founded on the premise that humans are inherently terrified of their event-
ual death. Our desire to live, coupled with the realisation that we will die, has the
potential to create anxiety (Greenberg, Vail, & Pyszczynski, 2014). In support, approxi-
mately 30 years of research has generated evidence that reminding people of their
mortality causes worldview defensive responding (Pyszczynski, Solomon, & Greenberg,
2015). These beliefs function as a way to maintain self-esteem. By maintaining faith
and living up to the standards inherent within our worldviews, we effectively amelio-
rate death concerns. In support, research into the mortality salience (MS) hypothesis
has demonstrated increased worldview defense (e.g., aggression/hostility, prejudice/
stereotyping; see Burke, Martens, & Faucher, 2010 for a review), as well as greater
support for others who support our beliefs (Greenberg, Simon, Pyszczynski,
Solomon, & Chatel, 1992).
Considerable research has also found that religion serves a terror management func-
tion. As Vail and colleagues (2010) argue, religious beliefs are an incredibly effective
way to manage existential anxiety due to both symbolic and literal immortality. Not
only do religions provide the means to boost self-esteem through worldview directive
behaviour (e.g., direct rules, taboos, & laws that are rewarded or punished), but they
also promise believers an immortal afterlife or rebirth which eliminates the problem
of non-existence and death. Thus, religion holds a duel ability to provide both symbolic
and literal immortality. Symbolic immortality is bolstered through worldview defenses
in which believers become more certain in their religious beliefs to ameliorate death
concerns by becoming more hostile toward opposing beliefs and practitioners
(Dechesne et al., 2003). In support, Greenberg and colleagues (1990) found that Chris-
tians were more positive and supportive toward a fellow Christian while more negative
and hostile toward a Jewish person following MS. Additionally, Christians are more
uncomfortable using a religious symbol in a non-religious, and possibly sacrilegious
way, following a mortality prime (Greenberg, Porteus, Simon, Pyszczynski, &
Solomon, 1995). More recent findings have extended this work showing that Christians,
Muslims, and agnostics become more religious, certain in the existence of their god,
and more rejecting of other gods and beliefs when death concerns are salient (Vail,
Arndt, & Abdollahi, 2012).
The literal immortality afforded by religion also functions to alleviate mortality aware-
ness. Schoenrade (1989) first demonstrated that death reminders cause individuals who
believe in an afterlife to ascribe more positive characteristics to their own mortality.
Dechesne and colleagues (2003) primed participants with death and provided “scientific
evidence” for an afterlife, thereby alleviating mortality concerns. These perceptions of
literal immortality seemingly function by alleviating the terror associated with non-exist-
ence, as an afterlife or rebirth promises a continual, physical survival. As such, atheists,
who by definition do not believe in an afterlife, report desiring one more following
death awareness due to its anxiety buffering potential (Heflick & Goldenberg, 2012). By
relying religious (and non-religious in the case of atheism) worldviews, believers can
trust that they will transcend death both symbolically through worldview striving and lit-
erally through an immortal afterlife.
536 R. B. ARROWOOD ET AL.

Creatureliness
Whereas most work analysing the role of religion has focused on the MS hypothesis,
reminders of human creatureliness (Goldenberg, 2005) have implications for religious
belief. According to Goldenberg and colleagues (2001), we are motivated to deny our simi-
larity to other, non-human animals in an attempt to deny the ultimate death awaiting all
biological creatures. In support, researchers demonstrated that MS causes individuals to
assert human distinctiveness from animals and to be more disgusted by biological pro-
cesses and products (e.g., faeces; Goldenberg et al., 2001). Furthermore, MS causes
greater opposition toward biological, creaturely processes such as sex (Goldenberg, Cox,
Pyszczynski, Greenberg, & Solomon, 2002), excessive eating (Goldenberg, Arndt, Hart, &
Brown, 2005), pregnancy (Goldenberg & Roberts, 2004), and breastfeeding (Cox, Golden-
berg, Arndt, & Pyszczynski, 2007). As demonstrated by Lifshin, Greenberg, Zestcott, and
Sullivan (2017) we must feel superior to animals. As a result, death awareness increases
support for killing animals which increases feelings of power and superiority. These feel-
ings are then used to combat existential anxieties.
With respect to religion, Arrowood and Cox (2018) outline several areas where crea-
turely concerns are present in religious doctrine and behaviours. For instance, many reli-
gions promote chastity and celibacy unless necessary for reproduction with many. These
taboos are present in many diverse religions as menstruation and childbirth are con-
sidered “unclean” requiring segregation from the larger groups until purified (Judaism),
a period of meditation and cleansing while abandoning any work with food (Hindu), or
avoiding sexual contact (Islam). Furthermore, many creation myths place humans as the
protectors and steward of all other animals as they are beneath the gods’ final creation
of man (e.g., Judeo Christian theologies). Just as religious doctrine seems to avoid
human–animal comparisons, so too do many religions downplay god-animal similarities.
Adding to this, most religions stress a form of body–soul dualism in which the pure
soul is a separate entity from the unclean body and will one day escape (Jacobson, Hall,
Anderson, & Willingham, 2016). Within Judeo Christian beliefs, biological processes
ascribed to Jesus have been met with considerable scepticism and hostility. Individuals,
for instance, were incredibly hostile toward the Martin Scorsese film The Last Temptation
of Christ where Jesus married, had sex with, and impregnated Mary Magdalene. The
famous artwork depicting Jesus has shown a well shaved and showered, Nordic Christ.
The irony of these images is especially apparent in The Sermon on the Mount by Matthias
Grünewald where Jesus is teaching following a long period of wilderness travel.
Empirically speaking, however, very little research has been conducted to connect crea-
turely concerns with religious beliefs. Heflick, Goldenberg, Hart, and Kamp (2015) demon-
strated that afterlife beliefs are heightened for individuals who have strong beliefs in
mind–body dualism. Other work examining incarnational ambivalence (i.e., concerns
with a god taking human form) among Christians has found that individuals who have
firm absolute beliefs without doubt (i.e., low quest) experience greater defensiveness
toward a Jesus engaging in biological behaviours (e.g., vomit, ejaculation). This hostility
toward a human Jesus was further associated with greater death concerns (Beck, 2008).
These results suggest that not only is the human body cause for concern (Goldenberg,
2005) but also that biological processes associated with a human body can jeopardise divi-
nity when associated with a god. Due to concerns with the explicit nature of some of the
 MENTAL HEALTH, RELIGION & CULTURE 537

items in Beck’s work (i.e., Jesus having a “wet dream”), Arrowood and Cox (2018) instead
primed a human Jesus and found greater death concerns among low quest and high fun-
damentalist individuals. They further showed greater hostility toward a human Jesus
among Christians with rigid beliefs.

The present work

Importantly, however, Arrowood and Cox (2018) as well as Beck (2018) did not demon-
strate the detrimental effects of a human Jesus within high quest or low fundamentalist
individuals who are more open toward exploring novel or uncomfortable religious ideas
(see Van Tongeren et al., 2016). As they suggest, individual differences may thus influence
the effects of a human Jesus variously. The current study expands on previous work on
the creatureliness hypothesis by examining intrinsic Christians’ reactions to Jesus taking
human form. Prior work has demonstrated reliable differences in religious orientation
that affect approaches to religion. Originally outlined by Allport and Ross (1967) and
similar to early work by James (1902) on the “healthy-minded” religious person, intrinsic
religiosity has been associated with greater internalisation of religious beliefs and scrip-
tures due to an intrinsic motivation to live the religion. Specifically, these people incor-
porate their motivations for religion within their sense of self. Those low in intrinsic
religiosity, or those who are extrinsically motivated, however, use religion for other instru-
mental purposes. Importantly, as Kirkpatrick and Hood (1990) note, these orientations
measure motives for approaching religion and not the actual beliefs and practices allow-
ing them to transcend specific religions or denominations (see also Hunt & King, 1971).
Intrinsic religiosity is strongly related to better mental health outcomes associated with
anxiety, fear, and depression (Arrowood, Pope, & Harlow, 2014; Sturgeon & Hamley, 1979).
More importantly, prior work has shown that intrinsic beliefs have several implications for
ameliorating existential anxiety. Cohen et al. (2005), for instance, found Protestant intrinsic
individuals experienced less death anxiety. Looked at closer, they showed evidence of
serial mediation where intrinsic religiosity predicted greater beliefs in an afterlife. These
beliefs were associated with lower death anxiety predicting greater well-being. Others
have found that intrinsically religious people experience a greater sense of personal
meaning, which ultimately predicts lower death concerns (Hui & Fung, 2009). Experimen-
tally, Jonas and Fischer (2006) demonstrated that due to their beliefs, intrinsically religious
people are buffered from the worldview defensive behaviours and attitudes when experi-
encing increased death awareness. Further, affirming religious beliefs shielded intrinsically
religious people from heightened death-thought accessibility following reminders of mor-
tality. Low intrinsic people, however, exhibited traditional MS effects regardless of belief
affirmation in which both artificially induced and naturally occurring MS caused signifi-
cantly greater accessibility of death thoughts and worldview defense. Jonas and Fisher
argue that intrinsic investment in one’s beliefs are necessary for terror management
without having to rely on other defensive mechanisms. According to this account, individ-
ual differences in intrinsic religiosity should moderate the effects of a human Jesus on exis-
tential anxiety.
Prior work within the TMT literature has shown that threats to a worldview actively elicit
greater death concerns (Schimel, Hayes, Williams, & Jahrig, 2007). Friedman and Rholes
(2007) demonstrated that religious individuals with firm, unwavering beliefs experience
538 R. B. ARROWOOD ET AL.

greater death concerns when confronted with inconsistent bible passages. Schimel and
colleagues (2007) similarly found that Christians who are primed with the scientific accu-
racy of evolution are similarly threatened and experience heightened death concerns. The
current study measured death concerns among Christian individuals in response to a
human Jesus. Specifically, we allowed Christian participants to affirm their beliefs using
the same design as Jonas and Fischer (2006) prior to exposure to a creaturely Jesus
prime. Following this manipulation, we assessed participants’ state fear of death. We
specifically, chose fear of death as a measure of death concerns based on prior research
within TMT. Several studies using diverse groups have shown that simply asking individ-
uals about their current fear of death is a reliable indicator of proximal, existential concerns
(see e.g., Abdel-Khalek, 1998; Arrowood, Cox, & Ekas, 2017; Cox, Reid-Arndt, Arndt, & Moser,
2012). That is, if individuals are affected by MS, then they typically report greater fear of
death. If, as Arrowood and Cox (2018) suggest, a human Jesus is a threat to religious
people because it reduces his divinity and thereby reduces their ability to maintain sym-
bolic and literal immortality, then religious individuals should experience greater fear of
death.
Given prior work within TMT, intrinsic individuals may be shielded from existential
anxiety due to their internalised beliefs. On the other hand, Watson and colleagues
(2003) and Rowatt and Franklin (2004) found that intrinsic beliefs are strongly associated
with greater fundamentalism and lower quest which Arrowood and Cox (2018) found to
be associated with greater existential concerns following a creaturely Jesus. Given impor-
tant qualitative differences between the religious orientations (e.g., internalised vs rigid vs
open vs social; Hood, Hill, & Spilka, 2009), however, we hypothesised that whereas intrin-
sically religious people would be buffered from any existential anxiety associated with a
human Jesus, low intrinsic individuals would experience greater fear of death after
reading about a creaturely Jesus.

Method
Participants
One-hundred and forty-nine Christian participants were recruited from Amazon’s Mechan-
ical Turk (MTurk) and paid $1.00 for their participation. Of these persons, 16 individuals’
reported rushing through the study, with an additional 33 participants spending less
than 30 seconds reading the experimental prime.1 These participants were removed
prior to any hypothesised analyses.2 This resulted in a final sample of 100 Christian partici-
pants (53 = female, 47 = male, Mage = 38.05 years, SD = 12.81).

Materials and procedure

Participants were asked to complete all materials (i.e., Qualtrics survey) on an individual
basis in a quiet setting. A cover story was crafted so as not to prematurely prime thoughts
of a human Jesus in either condition. Participants were told that we were interested in
studying religious beliefs as they associate with personality and social judgments. Follow-
ing informed consent, individuals completed the following items in the order in which
they are presented.
 MENTAL HEALTH, RELIGION & CULTURE 539

Intrinsic religiosity
First, participants were given the Religious Orientation Scale (Allport & Ross, 1967) to
measure intrinsic religiosity (e.g., “A primary reason for my interest in religion is that my
church is a congenial social activity [reverse scored];” α = .95). Answers were scored on a
nine-point Likert style scale (1 = “Strongly Disagree”, 9 = “Strongly Agree”). In order to
bolster the cover story, we embedded this scale into a battery of neutral measures (e.g.,
the Broader Autism Phenotype Scale, Hurley, Losh, Parlier, Reznick, & Piven, 2007; the
10-item Personality Inventory, Gosling, Rentfrow, & Swann, 2003).

Creaturely Jesus prime

Participants were randomly assigned to either a human or neutral Jesus condition. In the
human Jesus condition, participants were asked to read an essay supposedly written by an
honours student that emphasised the biological processes that a human Jesus would have
been subject to (e.g., “Having been trained as a carpenter long before the advent of power
tools, Jesus probably cut himself, bled and had a number of injuries that might have
gotten infected”). In the control condition, participants read a similar essay about the
lost years of Jesus (e.g., “Some scholars have said that he stayed at home with his
parents and was raised as a carpenter”). Both essays were extensively pilot tested by Arro-
wood and Cox (2018) in which the human essay was shown to elicit creaturely thoughts
while the lost years essay remained neutral.

Fear of death
Participants were given a single question assessing fear of death (i.e., “I am very much
afraid to die;” Arrowood et al., 2017). Answers were scored on a seven-point Likert scale
(1 = “Strongly Disagree”, 7 = “Strongly Agree”). Prior work has shown that this single
item reliably predicts state death concerns in response to MS, it is often used as a proximal
measure of death-thought accessibility, and the measure correlates highly with Multi-item
Fear of Mortality Scales (e.g., Abdel-Khalek, 1998; Arrowood et al., 2017; Cox et al., 2012).
No other dependent variables were included in this study. Upon completion, individuals
were debriefed and thanked for their participation.

Results
A moderated multiple regression analysis was conducted with experimental condition
(dummy coded; Creaturely Jesus vs. Neutral Jesus) and intrinsic religiosity (centred)
entered into Step 1 with the intrinsic by Jesus condition interaction entered into Step 2
to predict fear of death. The results of the analysis revealed a significant two-way inter-
action, b = −.45 (SE = .23), t = 1.97, p = .05, R2 = .04 (see Figure 1). Looked at further,
simple slope analyses found that whereas the slope of intrinsic religiosity in the control
essay was non-significant, b = .06 (SE = .17), t = .36, p = .72, R2 = .001, high (vs. low) intrinsic
participants experienced less death anxiety after a creaturely Jesus prime, b = −.39 (SE
= .16), t = 2.48, p = .02, R2 = .05. Looked at differently, although high intrinsic individuals
(+1 SD) did not differ as a function of essay condition, b = −.53 (SE = .76), t = .69, p = .50,
R2 = .001, low intrinsic individuals had significantly greater fear of death when primed
with a human Jesus compared to the control group, b = 1.61 (SE = .77), t = 2.10, p = .04,
R2 = .04. Additional analyses using Johnson-Neyman regions of significance found that
540 R. B. ARROWOOD ET AL.

Fear of Death 5

Control
4
Death

1
Low Intrinsic Religiosity High Intrinsic Religiosity

Figure 1. Fear of death scores as a function of creaturely Jesus prime and intrinsic religiosity.

as significant differences in fear of death emerge at .76 standard deviations away from the
mean level of intrinsic religiosity, b = 1.35 (SE = .68), t = 1.99, p = .05, with marginal differ-
ences emerging at .46 standard deviations b = 1.03 (SE = .60), t = 1.74, p = .09.

Discussion
The current work examined the effects of a human Jesus on fear of death among person
who do and do not internalise their faith as part of their motivations for religion. Building
on work by Beck (2008) and Arrowood and Cox (2018), we demonstrated that whereas
intrinsic individuals are buffered from existential threat caused by a creaturely Jesus,
low intrinsic oriented people have a higher fear of death when presented with the biologi-
cal processes associated with Jesus taking human form. This work builds on previous work
with TMT and religiosity in a number of ways. First, ascribing creaturely aspects to world-
view defensive beliefs can serve to devalue those defenses. Whereas prior work has
demonstrated that religious people go to gods to combat death awareness (Norenzayan
& Hansen, 2006), these gods may not always provide comfort to their followers. Gods who
accentuate biological or creaturely qualities would seemingly exacerbate any existential
concerns that followers would have. This may explain why many of the gods of today’s
dominant religions do not rely on animal-based deities (e.g., Christianity, Judaism, Islam,
Buddhism). Furthermore, artwork and conceptions of the dominant gods accentuate
divine qualities (e.g., halos, rays of light) that serve to separate them from the humans
in the image (Schiller, 1971). Seemingly, this divine separation would serve as a way to
reduce existential concerns of the gods being mistaken as human.
Although the current work suggests that these creaturely God similarities would not
cause existential concerns in all religious followers, prior work has demonstrated that
few individuals would be able to avoid mortality awareness associated with a human
Jesus. Allport and Ross (1967) demonstrated that the majority of religious people hold
an amalgam of intrinsic and extrinsic beliefs. In our sample, more than one-third of partici-
pants experienced heightened existential fear due to the presentation of a human Jesus
(based on a normal distribution of scores). Thus, there would be immense pressure to
 MENTAL HEALTH, RELIGION & CULTURE 541

downplay divine human similarities in order to avoid arousing existential concerns and the
defensiveness associated with death awareness in a relatively large number of religious
people. As previously mentioned, this may explain the romanticised portrayals of Jesus
and other gods in traditional artwork and media as a large portion of religious people
would experience existential anxiety from these depictions.
Furthermore, the current work exemplifies the shielding effects of intrinsic religiosity.
We demonstrated lower existential concerns among high intrinsic individuals following
the presentation of a creaturely Jesus. Just as Jonas and Fischer (2006) found that
affirmed intrinsic beliefs are able to shield against the direct existential threat, we
demonstrated that individuals who affirmed their intrinsic beliefs are also protected
against indirect existential threats associated with creatureliness. Importantly, this pro-
vides further evidence that only those who internalise their beliefs are able use these
beliefs in a terror management way. Given that prior work has shown intrinsic religiosity
to be associated with lower death concerns (Cohen et al., 2005) and anxiety in general
(Arrowood et al., 2014), our finding further supports important qualitative differences in
religious orientation and how people are able to rely on their beliefs as a coping
method.
Interestingly, these results somewhat qualify those by Arrowood and Cox (2018) who
suggest that firm, unyielding beliefs are associated with existential concerns caused by
a human Jesus. They, along with Hunsberger, Pratt, and Pancer (2001), suggest that fun-
damentalist and low quest individuals have prematurely foreclosed on their religious
beliefs without fully exploring them. It is further argued that low quest and high funda-
mentalists individuals although expressing belief that Jesus was fully human, did not
fully explore the existential ramifications of these beliefs. In a departure from Allport
and Ross (1967), more recent work has shown intrinsic religiosity to be strongly associated
with greater fundamentalism (Genia, 1996; Watson et al., 2003) and lower quest religiosity
(Rowatt & Franklin, 2004). In our study, high intrinsic participants were shielded from exis-
tential concerns. We interpret these differences as important qualitative differences
between fully internalised beliefs and rigid, unwavering worldviews. Although related,
these orientations are unique constructs and emphasise different motivations toward reli-
gion (Hood et al., 2009). Thus, fundamentalists and low quest individuals may not truly
internalise their religious beliefs in order to serve as an anxiety buffer, perhaps explaining
the observed differences between these related constructs.
The present results further suggest that existential concerns associated with creature-
liness can be applied to traditional worldview defenses that are used to alleviate death
concerns. Thus, future research may be able to apply the human qualities to other world-
view defenses to lower their efficacy. Given work in conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff &
Johnson, 1980), applying human and creaturely metaphors to traditional defenses such as
politics (Weise et al., 2008), romantic (Cox & Arndt, 2012) and parental attachments (Cox
et al., 2008), and culture at large (Greenberg et al., 1990) may devalue their defensive abil-
ities and cause people to experience greater existential concerns. Furthermore, although
we examined intrinsic religiosity, we did so only after belief affirmation. Results by Jonas
and Fischer (2006) suggest that intrinsic people’s worldviews may not shield them without
prior affirmation. Thus, additional research comparing affirmed and unaffirmed intrinsi-
cally religious individuals would be beneficial to better understand intrinsic beliefs as a
terror management function. Additionally, as Arrowood and Cox (2018) suggest, future
542 R. B. ARROWOOD ET AL.

research examining a creaturely Jesus will benefit from examining diverse religious groups
and orientations in both experimental and naturalistic settings as we only examined Chris-
tians due to our dependent variable. Other religions that have more nature and animal-
based pantheons may not be as affected by creaturely gods as they are a more fundamen-
tal aspect of their beliefs. Finally, although a human Jesus appears to be concerning for
some religious people, those without religious beliefs (e.g., atheists) may be comforted
by this as it supports their worldview.
Given the current findings and previous work on creaturely reminders of human–
animal similarity (e.g., Goldenberg, 2005), we suggest that a human Jesus is existentially
concerning to people who use religion for means other than internalised belief. Addition-
ally, we suggest that defense mechanisms bolstered against death can be devalued and
increase the death concerns that they are designed to buffer. By understanding the exis-
tential ramifications of biological processes attributed to divine beings, we can perhaps
begin to understand historic and current hostility associated with physical depictions of
gods and battles to control the earthly domains these gods were said to reside in. A
human God would have to contend with death. Their followers must also contend with
their own death.

Notes
1. Criteria were based on pilot-tests of the article (i.e., average reading time was ≥30 seconds), in
addition to suggestions made by Arrowood and Cox (2018). Even when including the 33
persons from the analyses, the results remained in the hypothesised direction. Our decision
to drop participants was to remain conservative in our analyses. However, given the moderate
to large effect sizes observed by Arrowood and Cox, combined with TMT work in general
(Burke et al., 2010), a power analysis found that 90 participants were needed to obtain statisti-
cal significance with 80% power.
2. Following Zhou and Fishbach (2016), a binary logistic regression examined whether the
number of dropped participants varied as a function of the 2-way interaction between the
creaturely Jesus prime and intrinsic religiosity. The results were non-significant, b = −.02
(SE = .16), χ2 = .01, p = .91.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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