Is personal insecurity a cause of cross-national differences in the intensity of religious belief?

Previous research has shown an apparent relationship between “societal health” and religiosity, with nations that exhibit higher mean personal religiosity also tending to provide worse social environments. A possible cause is that exposure to stressful situations (i.e. personal insecurity) increases...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of religion & society
Main Author: Rees, Tomas J. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Creighton University 2009
In: The journal of religion & society
Year: 2009, Volume: 11
Further subjects:B Religious surveys
B Psychology
B Religious
B Faith
B Religious attitudes
B Religiousness
B Prayer
B Security (Psychology)
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Summary:Previous research has shown an apparent relationship between “societal health” and religiosity, with nations that exhibit higher mean personal religiosity also tending to provide worse social environments. A possible cause is that exposure to stressful situations (i.e. personal insecurity) increases personal religiosity. To test this hypothesis, income inequality, a widely available proxy for personal insecurity, was compared with other macro-scale causes of religiosity (derived from modernization and rational choice theories) in a multinational, cross-sectional analysis. Income inequality, and hence personal insecurity, was found to be an important determinant of religiosity in this diverse sample of nations.
ISSN:1522-5658
Contains:Enthalten in: The journal of religion & society
Persistent identifiers:HDL: 10504/64442