Supernatural beliefs are ubiquitous around the world, and mounting evidence indicates that these beliefs partly rely on intuitive, cross‐culturally recurrent cognitive processes. Specifically, past research has focused on humans' intuitive tendency to perceive minds as part of the cognitive foundations of belief in a personified God—an agentic, morally concerned supernatural entity. However, much less is known about belief in karma—another culturally widespread but ostensibly non‐agentic supernatural entity reflecting ethical causation across reincarnations. In two studies and four high‐powered samples, including mostly Christian Canadians and mostly Hindu Indians (Study 1, N = 2,006) and mostly Christian Americans and Singaporean Buddhists (Study 2, N = 1,752), we provide the first systematic empirical investigation of the cognitive intuitions underlying various forms of belief in karma. We used path analyses to (a) replicate tests of the previously documented cognitive predictors of belief in God, (b) test whether this same network of variables predicts belief in karma, and (c) examine the relative contributions of cognitive and cultural variables to both sets of beliefs. We found that cognitive tendencies toward intuitive thinking, mentalizing, dualism, and teleological thinking predicted a variety of beliefs about karma—including morally laden, non‐agentic, and agentic conceptualizations—above and beyond the variability explained by cultural learning about karma across cultures. These results provide further evidence for an independent role for both culture and cognition in supporting diverse types of supernatural beliefs in distinct cultural contexts.

中文翻译：

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信仰业力和信仰上帝的认知途径

超自然信仰在世界各地无处不在，越来越多的证据表明，这些信仰部分依赖于直觉的、跨文化反复出现的认知过程。具体而言，过去的研究集中在人类的直觉倾向上，即将思想视为信仰拟人化上帝的认知基础的一部分——一个有灵性的、道德上关注的超自然实体。然而，人们对业力的信仰知之甚少——这是另一种文化上广泛但表面上非代理的超自然实体，反映了转世之间的道德因果关系。在两项研究和四个高功率样本中，主要包括加拿大基督徒和印度教印度人（研究 1，N  = 2,006）以及美国基督教徒和新加坡佛教徒（研究 2，N = 1,752），我们对各种形式的业力信念背后的认知直觉进行了首次系统的实证研究。我们使用路径分析来 (a) 复制先前记录的信仰上帝的认知预测因素的测试，(b) 测试相同的变量网络是否可以预测业力的信仰，以及 (c) 检查认知和文化变量对信仰的相对贡献两种信念。我们发现，直觉思维、心智化、二元论和目的论思维的认知倾向预测了关于业力的各种信念——包括道德负载、非动因和动因概念化——超出了跨文化对业力的文化学习所解释的可变性的解释。