A study carried out by the University of North Carolina, United States, affirms that the physical appearance that people imagine that God possesses varies considerably according to their demographics and political leanings.
In the article published in the scientific journal PLOS One and titled “The Faces of God in America: Revealing Religious Diversity Among People and Politics”researchers say American Christians they do not have a universal vision of the face of God.
Those responsible for the study state that “results suggest there may not be one answer for all believers, even within the same religion”. By this they mean that believers create an image of God that represents themselves, suits their needs, and most surprisingly, looks like them.
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The study involved 511 Americans who were presented with random faces and asked to indicate the face they thought most closely matched their idea of what God looks like.
The image above shows the results of the study. The face on the left represents what the younger participants imagine God to look like, while the face on the right is that of the older participants.
The result of all the participants’ choices was that of a white, young man with short hair.
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The study’s authors suggest that people with more liberal political leanings tend to imagine God as a man “more feminine, African-American and loving”, and those more conservative to “an old man, intelligent and powerful”.
People with more liberal political leanings tend to imagine God as a man”more feminine, African-American and loving”, and those more conservative to “an old man, intelligent and powerful”.
Other studies related to the subject had reached the conclusion that the vision of God is determined by group motivations and cognitive biases. “Even people of the same nationality and faith have different ideas of the physical appearance of God” say the experts.
And you, how do you imagine God?
Sources:
University of North Carolina