Religious belief cannot ease Brexit stress, study finds

The research by psychologists compared people with strong beliefs in either God or science, and found stress levels increased significantly when participants were challenged to talk about Brexit.

The study asked religious university students to first write about an important event in their lives where a god or science had been particularly helpful – prompting them to focus on their beliefs.

Participants were then told to argue their case for or against Britain leaving the EU in front of a panel judging the credibility of their arguments.

The research, conducted by psychologists at Coventry University and University at Albany, New York, measured heart rate, blood pressure and a stress response hormone.

Each participant was monitored for subjective measures of stress alongside their strength of ideology to see the impact of reflecting on belief.

The findings, which analysed the responses of 100 students, suggested that when people are not able to anticipate an upcoming acute stressor, their ability to cope with the stressful situation is not improved by having recently reflected on their beliefs.

Co-author Anna Newheiser, assistant professor of psychology at the University at Albany, State University of New York, said: “It’s possible that had participants had a chance to reflect on their beliefs after, rather than…