Vassilis Saroglou

Religion and the five factors of personality: a meta-analytic review

An impression based on a vote-counting method of reviewing studies on religion and personality is that religiosity is associated only with low Psychoticism (or high Agreeableness and Conscientiousness), while unrelated to the other Eysencks or Big Five factors. This meta-analytic review of studies on religion and the Five Factor Model revealed that, in addition to Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, religiosity (today?) is related to Extraversion. Interestingly, while Openness is negatively related to religious fundamentalism (weighted mean r=-0.14, P <0.01) and, to some extent, intrinsic-general religiosity (r=-0.06, P <0.01), it is positively related to measures of open or mature religiosity and spirituality (r=0.22, P <0.0001). The meta-analysis also indicated that extrinsic religiosity is followed by high Neuroticism, whereas open-mature religiosity and spirituality reflect Emotional Stability. Finally, overall, the effect sizes were small

Religiousness as a Cultural Adaptation of Basic Traits: A Five-Factor Model Perspective

Individual differences in religiousness can be partly explained as a cultural adaptation of two basic personality traits,Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. This argument is supported by a meta-analysis of 71 samples (N = 21,715) from 19 countries and a review of the literature on personality and religion. Beyond variations in effect magnitude as a function of moderators, the main personality characteristics of religiousness (Agreeableness and Conscientiousness) are consistent across different religious dimensions, contexts (gender, age, cohort, and country), and personality measures, models, and levels, and they seem to predict religiousness rather than be influenced by it. The copresence of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness sheds light on other explanations of religiousness, its distinctiveness from related constructs, its implications for other domains, and its adaptive functions.

Positive emotions as leading to religion and spirituality

A great deal of research has shown that a variety of negative events and emotions can increase religion and spirituality. We argue that positive events and emotions (that imply some self-transcendence) can increase religion and spirituality. In two experiments, participants (N  = 91 and N  = 87) were exposed to a neutral video or one of three videos eliciting positive emotions: humor, appreciation of nature, and wonder at childbirth. Religiousness was to some extent affected by the positive emotions elicited (Study 1), and spirituality was higher among participants who were exposed to the videos eliciting self-transcendent emotions (appreciation of nature and wonder at childbirth) but not among those exposed to humor (Study 2). Both religiousness and spirituality may fit with the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, but the correspondence seems to be clearer for spirituality, a reality marked by universalism and openness to experience.

Believing, Bonding, Behaving, and Belonging: The Big Four Religious Dimensions and Cultural Variation

When approaching religion from a cross-cultural psychological perspective, one faces questions regarding the universals and the specifics of religions across cultural contexts. On the basis of previous theorization and research, the author proposes a model that posits four basic dimensions of religion and individual religiosity that are partially distinct although interconnected: believing, bonding, behaving, and belonging. These dimensions are presumably universally present across religions and cultural contexts and delimitate religion from other similar constructs. They reflect distinct psychological processes (cognitive, emotional, moral, and social), respective goals, conversion motives, types of self-transcendence, and mechanisms explaining the religion-health links. However, across cultural and religious groups, these dimensions may differ in content, salience, and ways in which they are interconnected or emphasized, leading to various forms of religiosity, including functional and dysfunctional ones. Within each dimension, there is additional universality (in structure) and cultural variability (in salience) regarding the way religious cognitions, emotions, morality, and identity are processed. This Big Four religious dimensions model may be a powerful tool for studying universals and cultural specifics of the psychological dimensions of religion.

Beyond dogmatism: The need for closure as related to religion

Our theoretical assumption is that behind the dogmatism-religion positive but not systematic relation, a clearer one may exist between religion and need for closure (Webster & Kruglanski, 1994). A positive association of religiosity with need for closure was hypothesized (except with the decisiveness facet). Subjects ( n = 239) were administered the Need for Closure Scale (NFCS), the Religious Fundamentalism Scale and a two-dimensional religiosity scale. Religious fundamentalism was positively correlated with the total NFCS, preference for order and predictability. Classic religiosity predicted high need for closure (all facets except decisiveness). However, spirituality-emotional religion was associated with low close-mindedness and low decisiveness but still high discomfort with ambiguity. Discussion includes arguments favouring the usefulness of the need for closure construct for understanding many aspects of religious personality (e.g. dogmatism, authoritarianism, prejudice, multiple conversions, distinction between permanence in order-closure and urgency for closure).

Identities, Values, and Religion: A Study Among Muslim, Other Immigrant, and Native Belgian Young Adults After the 9/11 Attacks

Individual identity statuses (Marcia, 1980) and collective (national and transnational) identities; value (Schwartz, 1992) hierarchies and priorities; religion-spirituality; social desirability; and opinions related to the September 11, 2001 attacks were investigated in 3 groups of young adults living in Belgium (N = 246): native Belgians, immigrants from Muslim Mediterranean countries, and immigrants from other countries. Similar patterns were found across the 3 groups with regard to value hierarchies and the ways religion is related to identity statuses (achievement and foreclosure), value priorities (conservation, low autonomy, and low hedonism), social desirability (impression management, but not self-deception), and collective identities (transnational). However, young Muslim immigrants differed in their high religiosity, tendency for non-explorative identity statuses, values that motivated openness to transnational identities, and correlates of their high anti-Americanism in the interpretation of the September 11 attacks. These and other cross-cultural differences are discussed.

Speak, Lord, your servant is listening: Religious priming activates submissive thoughts and behaviors

According to many theoretical perspectives, religion is positively associated with submission and conformity. However, no study to date provided experimental evidence for this hypothesis. We did so in two experiments that relied on priming procedures. In Experiment 1, participants were tested for the strength of their religion-submission associations by using a lexical decision task. In Experiment 2, participants were primed with either religious or neutral concepts and were invited or not by the experimenter to take revenge on an individual who had allegedly criticized them. Both studies provided evidence for the expected religion-submission association, although the effects were limited to participants scoring high in personal submissiveness. Among these individuals, religious priming increased the accessibility of submission-related concepts (Experiment 1) and the acceptance of a morally problematic request for revenge (Experiment 2). Discussion focuses on questions for future research and implications for our understanding of religions role in morality and interpersonal relations.

Religion and Helping: Impact of Target Thinking Styles and Just-World Beliefs

Previous research on religion and helping has left some questions unanswered. In the present study, participants expressed willingness to help groups of people in need (homeless people and illegal immigrants), and this after having been religiously versus non-religiously stimulated. The activation of religious context increased the willingness to help, but only the homeless. Orthodox religious people tended to consider the targets responsible for their problem, an association partially mediated by the belief in a just world for other. Symbolic thinking was associated with willingness for helping, an association partially mediated by the belief in ultimate justice. Results suggest a limited (target) and conditional (thinking style, just world beliefs) prosociality as a consequence of religion.

Religion, multiple identities, and acculturation: A study of Muslim immigrants in Belgium

In the present study, we examined how the religiousness of European (Belgian) Muslim immigrants is related to multiple collective identities (origin, new country, European, and cosmopolitan), attachment to one (origin or new) or both cultures, and acculturation as a process realized through a variety of domains in personal and social life. Two groups were included: young Muslims born of immigration from Muslim (Mediterranean) countries and, for comparison, young non-Muslims born of immigration from other countries. In both groups, high religiousness predicted attachment to origin identity and culture; low religiousness and religious doubting predicted identification with the host country and acculturation. Interestingly, the religiousness of Muslim immigrants also predicted high identification as citizen of the world, whereas the religiousness of the other immigrants was related to low European identity. Finally, some discrepancy between claiming new identities and effectively experiencing acculturation was found. Interpretations are provided on both a general level (psychology of religion and immigration) and a contextual level (specific to Muslim Europeans).

Psychology of Culture and Religion Introduction to the JCCP Special Issue

In introducing this Special Issue we first consider six ways of thinking about how culture and religion relate to each other: Religion may be part of culture, constitute culture, include and transcend culture, be influenced by culture, shape culture, or interact with culture in influencing cognitions, emotions, and actions. Second, we present the major current trends of relevant research from cross-cultural psychology, social and cultural psychology, and comparative psychology of religion. Although diverging in methodologies, theoretical traditions, and research focus, these approaches complement each other in increasing our psychological understanding of the inter-relations between culture and religion. Finally, we present the papers of this special issue that offer theoretical advances, test new research hypotheses, and provide empirical evidence showing how cultural-level dimensions (from ecology and biology to ethnicity, family practices, and socio-economic factors) shape religion’s functioning at the individual and/or collective level with regard to key life domains.