Brief description
Below you will find a brief description of what the "Credition" research project is all about
What images and narratives do individuals believe? How do they assess the importance of democracy, religion, equality, freedom or science - and what do they understand by these? The respective world view can differ fundamentally within a reasonably coherent framework (Western, Asian, etc.). The emergence of individual world views involves processes that have so far received little attention in science. They are called creditions (from the Latin credere = to believe). Credition is a central function of the human brain. It interacts with other brain functions such as learning or memory and has a lasting effect on our behaviour. The processes in the brain known as creditions are complex and largely unconscious. They result in attitudes and values. They can provide inner stability, but they can also rigidify thought patterns and restrict our room for manoeuvre.
This has to do with the fact that during the course of creditions, individuals evaluate what is important to them and to what extent. The results produced during creditions can become conscious. Then you can put into words what you believe. You can think about it and discuss it. This also applies in the context of religions. Although credition itself is not religious, the processes it refers to play an important role in religions in particular. However, creditions, like all other biological and psychological processes, can take on abnormal forms and result in clinically relevant disorders. This has an impact on which beliefs arise.
Knowledge of the existence of credition and a better understanding of the processes and functions described by this term enables a new approach to the phenomenon of belief. Such an approach has been developed from two different sides: (a) Basic research has developed a functional process model based on neuroscientific findings (neural credition model). It describes the unconscious pre-linguistic processes and functions as well as the development of language-bound beliefs. (b) A further model was developed on this basic theoretical basis. This makes it possible to exchange individually held beliefs and their emergence without the need for in-depth knowledge of the bio-logical and psychological contexts (communication model-credition). It can be used profitably in all fields of activity in which beliefs often play an unnoticed role. Examples include politics, coaching, psychotherapy, decision-making processes, sustainability and climate debates, the search for conflict resolution, reconciliation work and teaching in schools.