God. Spirit. Divine.
Could it be that these three words (and others like them) have a singular strength for bolstering our powers of self-control? Even among nonbelievers? And with demonstrated effects as great as a 91 percent boost?
If it sounds too good to be true, guess again.
These are the findings from a series of extremely well-designed studies—complete with control groups and a very sophisticated, scientific methodology—conducted by a team of four academic researchers and published in peer-reviewed literature. (The original study can be found and read online for free and is well worth a look, even if its conceptual framing—in evolutionary psychological terms—might be incongruent with one’s own beliefs.)…