title: The religiosity as social value hypothesis: A multi-method replication and extension across 65 countries and three levels of spatial aggregation.
abstract: Are religious people psychologically better or worse adjusted than their nonreligious counterparts? Hundreds of studies have reported a positive relation between religiosity and psychological adjustment. Recently, however, a comparatively small number of cross-cultural studies has questioned this staple of religiosity research. The latter studies find that religious adjustment benefits are restricted to religious cultures. Gebauer, Sedikides, and Neberich (2012) suggested the religiosity as social value hypothesis (RASV) as one explanation for those cross-cultural differences. RASV states that, in religious cultures, religiosity possesses much social value, and, as such, religious people will feel particularly good about themselves. In secular cultures, however, religiosity possesses limited social value, and, as such, religious people will feel less good about themselves, if at all. Yet, previous evidence has been inconclusive regarding RASV and regarding cross-cultural differences in religious adjustment benefits more generally. To clarify matters, we conducted 3 replication studies. We examined the relation between religiosity and self-esteem (the most direct and appropriate adjustment indicator, according to RASV) in a self-report study across 65 countries (N = 2,195,301), an informant-report study across 36 countries (N = 560,264), and another self-report study across 1,932 urban areas from 243 federal states in 18 countries (N = 1,188,536). Moreover, we scrutinized our results against 7, previously untested, alternative explanations. Our results fully and firmly replicated and extended prior evidence for cross-cultural differences in religious adjustment benefits. These cross-cultural differences were best explained by RASV. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Mannheim Centre for European Social Research, University of Mannheim.
authors.forename: Jochen E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Gebauer
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research on Self and Identity, University of Southampton.
authors.forename: Constantine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sedikides
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
authors.forename: Felix D
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8282-3910
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Schönbrodt
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis.
authors.forename: Wiebke
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bleidorn
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge.
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Rentfrow
authors.affiliation: Independent Practice.
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Potter
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin.
authors.forename: Samuel D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Gosling
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012649:Self Concept; D012945:Social Values; D062206:Spatial Analysis; D055815:Young Adult