Study: Born-again Christians have smaller brains

“Small-brained” seems like an insult a non-believer might hurl at a born-again Christian, but no, this is for real. The Religion News Service reports:




That’s right, this study found an association between brain size, specifically the hippocampus region, and a person’s affiliation within Christianity, with the “born again” experience [as well as Catholicism and lack of religious affiliation] correlating to less grey matter.

Here is the abstract for the study itself, published earlier this spring the science journal PlosOne:




Hippocampal volume has been linked to clinical outcomes, such as depression, dementia, and Alzheimer’s Disease. The findings of this study indicate that hippocampal atrophy in late life may be uniquely influenced by certain types of religious factors.

The RNS story said shrinking of the hippocampus, medically linked to mental health problems, could be due to the stress of affiliation with a minority group, but sociologists of religion say that doesn’t make any sense.


So do the results really have any meaning to us? Or are these results as off-the-wall as they seem at first glance?

It’s certainly easy for this research to fuel Christian stereotypes (as I mentioned at the start of the post), mainly the idea that belief is an intellectually inferior position to unbelief.

But perhaps this may be a step to help us better understand the nature of those spiritual experiences that we can’t otherwise explain and better know how our minds connect with the divine.

NPR’s series Is This Your Brain on God? tracked brain activity during heightened spiritual settings. Their research studied how certain brain chemistry may lend itself to connection with God, how our thoughts and prayers may have effects on others, what allows us to believe and have faith and more, from the perspective of both Christian and skeptic scientists.

Or maybe it is just offensive? Or wrong? I’m sure you’ll tell me what you think in the comments.

Kate Shellnutt