Zapping part of people’s brains with a magnetic field may temporarily diminish their faith in God, according to a pilot study.
Scientists also claimed that the technique, known as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), can reduce prejudice against immigrants, and suggested that it could be used to gain leverage over people with extreme beliefs.
Experts are increasingly interested in the method, which involves placing an electromagnetic coil next to the scalp to alter the pattern of signals in a particular brain area. It has shown some promise in early-stage trials as a way of treating severe depression.
Researchers at the University of York and the University of California, Los Angeles, targeted the posterior medial frontal cortex, a region that governs threats and problem-solving.
They recruited 38 American undergraduates and subjected half to real TMS and half to a placebo treatment that had no effect on their brains.
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The students were then asked to write brief paragraphs envisaging their own deaths to prime their thoughts for religious experience before reading two essays that had ostensibly been written by immigrants, one of whom liked living in the US while the other was highly critical of the country.
Those who had received TMS were on average 28.5 per cent more positive about the authors of the essays than those who had been given the placebo.
Keise Izuma, a lecturer in psychology at York and one of the authors, said that the magnetic field seemed to have made a bigger difference to the students’ views about the ruder immigrant.
The participants were also asked to rate their belief in God, angels, Heaven, Hell, the Devil and demons. Once again, those who had been subjected to the magnetic field reported a 32.8 per cent weaker belief in God.
It is not clear whether the effects were lasting, although previous studies have found that the technique can dampen the activity of neurons for about an hour. The small sample size also means that it is difficult to draw solid conclusions from the experiment.
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Writing in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, the authors called their study a “proof of concept” that some beliefs had a biological footing and that this could be altered using magnetism. They suggested that this effect could be used to moderate the “zealous acts” linked to some political and religious ideologies.
“The results provide evidence that relatively abstract personal and social attitudes are susceptible to targeted neuromodulation, opening the way for researchers not only to describe the biological mechanisms undergirding high-level attitudes and beliefs, but also to establish causality via experimental intervention,” they wrote.