The face of God as seen by Americans

Psychologists at the University of North Carolina have taken an interest in the appearance of God.

To understand how American Christians perceive God, the psychologists showed several pairs of faces to a sample of 522 people. They then combined the results obtained to draw the final face, the one that is supposed to represent the image that Americans have of God, reports the Belgian media RTBF.

At the end of the experiment, the researchers found that the face chosen by this group of Christians was much more feminine and younger than that traditionally presented on television. Moreover, they discovered that the political beliefs of the Americans questioned influenced the way they saw God.

Egocentrism as an influence

Liberals, for example, perceive God as nurturing and feminine, whereas conservatives see him as Caucasian and all-powerful. In all cases, God is a man for the Christians questioned. The psychologists also explain that "as expected, perceptions of God’s face are influenced by egocentrism. Older participants saw an older God, more attractive participants saw a more attractive God, and African Americans saw a slightly more African American God".

(MH with Raphaël Liset - Source: RTBF - Illustration: ©Unsplash)