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Distant Intercessory Prayer 1 Running head: INTERCESSORY PRAYER AND TASK PERFORMANCE Distant Intercessory Prayer and Task Performance Lynn M. Munson and Douglas Degelman Vanguard University of Southern California Distant Intercessory Prayer 2 Abstract In an extension of research demonstrating causal effects of intercessory prayer for physical healing in a medical setting, the present study experimentally examined the effects of intercessory prayer for improved task performance in an employment setting. Trained customer service representatives either did, or did not, receive (over a 14-day period) daily intercessory prayer for the specific needs and challenges of their workplace. Speed of call handling was evaluated for each customer service representative. The specific dependent measures were number of calls per hour and number of seconds per call. No statistically significant differences between prayer and non-prayer groups were found for either calls per hour or seconds per call. Recommendations for research in this new area of study center on methodological issues, including the selection of relevant dependent measures. Distant Intercessory Prayer 3 Distant Intercessory Prayer and Task Performance Reviews of research on religion and health have concluded that at least some types of religious behaviors are related to higher levels of physical and mental health (Gartner, Larson, & Allen, 1991; Koenig, 1990; Levin & Vanderpool, 1991; Maton & Pargament, 1987; Paloma & Pendleton, 1991; Payne, Bergin, Bielema, & Jenkins, 1991). One of the “religious behaviors” that has been shown to be related to health and well-being is prayer (Finney & Maloney, 1985; McCullough, 1995; Paloma & Pendleton, 1991). The empirical studies examined in these reviews have almost all revealed a significant relationship between an individual's religious belief system and measures of well-being (Aldridge, 1991; Friedman & Benson, 1997; Larson et al., 1992; Matthews, 1997). A more difficult question to answer is whether the relationship between religion and health, or more specifically between prayer and health, is causal. Most studies examining prayer and health are correlational, leaving unanswered the question of whether prayer is causing the observed changes in health. To illustrate, if individuals who pray for physical healing (or know that others are praying for them) have more positive outcome measures, many would argue that the positive outcome is not the direct effect of the prayer, but instead may be the result of positive cognitive expectations. One study that has experimentally examined the causal effect of prayer on health measures was conducted by Randolph Byrd (1988). Byrd conducted what has proved to be a landmark study experimentally examining the causal effect of intercessory prayer (prayer offered on behalf of another) on recovery from cardiological illness. In this double-blind study, patients in a coronary care unit either received or did not receive daily prayer (while hospitalized) from Christian prayer intercessors. Patients receiving prayer had “less congestive heart failure, required less diuretic and antibiotic therapy, had fewer episodes of pneumonia, had fewer cardiac arrests, and were less frequently intubated and ventilated” (Byrd, 1988, p. 829). In another randomized, double-blind study on the effect of healing therapy utilizing intercessory prayer on insulin dosage in type I diabetes mellitus patients, Wirth and Mitchell (1994) found that although there was a reduction in insulin dosage over a period of two weeks in Distant Intercessory Prayer 4 the treatment condition compared to the control condition, the difference was not statistically significant. Although Byrd's (1988) study provides some evidence of a causal effect of prayer on medical outcomes, there have been no comparable studies examining the potential causal effects of prayer outside a medical setting.
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