Autistic adolescents expressed less belief in God than did matched neuro-typical controls (Study 1). In a Canadian student sample (Study 2), and two American national samples that controlled for demographic characteristics and other correlates of autism and religiosity (Study 3 and 4), the autism spectrum predicted reduced belief in God, and mentalizing mediated this relationship. Systemizing (Studies 2 and 3) and two personality dimensions related to religious belief, Conscientiousness and Agreeableness (Study 3), failed as mediators. Mentalizing also explained the robust and well-known, but theoretically debated, gender gap in religious belief wherein men show reduced religious belief (Studies 2–4).
...In neuroimaging studies, thinking about [14] and praying to [15] God activates brain regions implicated in mentalizing; thus mentalizing might be a necessary component of belief in God, without being a sufficient cause. When adults form inferences about God’s mind, they show the same mentalizing biases that are typically found when reasoning about other peoples’ minds [16]–[18].
...Finally, mentalizing is deficient at higher levels of the autism spectrum [8], [9], [21], [22], and interestingly men are both more likely to score high on the autism spectrum [23] and more likely to be non-believers [24]–[26].
Baron-Cohen S, Wheelwright S (2004) The Empathy Quotient: An investigation of adults with Asperger Syndrome or high functioning autism, and normal sex differences. J Autism Devel Dis 34: 163–175.
Crespi BJ, Badcock C (2008) Psychosis and autism as diametrical disorders of the social brain. Behav Brain Sci 31: 284–320.
Roth L, Kroll JC (2007) Risky business: Assessing risk-preference explanations for gender differences in religiosity. Am Sociol Rev 27: 205–220.
Stark R (2002) Physiology and faith: Addressing the “universal” gender difference in religious commitment. J Sci Stud Relig 41: 495–507.
Walter T, Davie G (1998) The Religiosity of Women in the Modern West. Brit J Sociol 49: 640–60.
“Mentalizing Deficits Constrain Belief in a Personal God”, Norenzayan et al 2012