Saroglou
Biographic Data
| ID | 8916 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Saroglou |
| FAMILY NAME | Saroglou |
| SIGNATURE | SAROGLOU |
| AFFILIATIONS | UCLouvain |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8294-9142 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 77 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 445 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 77 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Advances in the Psychology of Agnosticism
Psychology of religion also studies nonreligion. In this editorial, we will first briefly review how the field evolved in approaching nonreligion as an area of investigation. Second, we will introd
Beyond Religious Narcissistic Identification: Agnostic and Atheistic Narcissism
Agnosticism and atheism are often grouped simply as nonreligious identities, yet emerging research highlights their distinct psychological profiles and social implications. Among these distinctions, collective narcissism – characterized by strong attachment to one’s group, exceptionalism, and grievance for recognition – offers a framework for understanding identity processes in both nonreligious groups. We examined whether agnostics and atheists …
Agnosticism as a distinct type of nonbelief: The role of indecisiveness, maximization, and low self-enhancement
If agnostics are hesitant nonbelievers, are they characterized by (1) some emotional instability and indecisiveness, (2) a tendency to maximize in decision making, or (3) low self-enhancement preventing them from thinking they are better than others? Data were collected online (through Prolific) from 333 UK adults, self-identified as Christian, agnostic, or atheist. We measured neuroticism, positive and negative affect, indecisiveness, maximizati…
A meta-analytic review of cultural variation in affect valuation
What affective states do people ideally want to feel and why? In Affect Valuation Theory, Tsai et al. (2006) proposed and observed that (a) how people would ideally like to feel (their "ideal affect") differs from how they actually feel (their "actual affect"), and (b) cultural factors shape people's ideal affect even more than their actual affect. In this individual participant data meta-analysis, we reexamined these two premises in a combined d…
Do Agnostics Resemble Atheists or Religionists on Morality? Evidence from 33 European Countries of Different Religious Heritage
International audience
Morality of Mentality and Culture: A Registered Replication and Cross-Cultural Extension
Previous work has established that religious groups vary in the perceived moral status of “thought” versus behavior, with Protestants negatively evaluating people who entertain immoral thoughts more harshly than Jews. This work provided early evidence that religion is important in evaluating moral status. However, in the decades since this work, methodological and theoretical advances have suggested that a second glance might be necessary. In thi…
Does agnosticism precede atheism? Investigating the question in the context of Western European countries
Nonbelief is increasing in secular countries. Among the nonreligious/nonbelievers (hereafter nonbelievers), agnostics differ from atheists in terms of underlying psychological characteristics. Can agnosticism be considered as a transient stance from religion to atheism? Using European Values Study (EVS) data from 18 Western European countries, we investigated this question both cross-sectionally and across three waves (EVS 1999 to 2017). Cross-se…
Do Benevolent and Hostile Expressions of Ageism Really Differ? The Underlying Role of Social Attitudes, Personality, Values, Emotions, and Beliefs
Are individual differences sustaining benevolent and hostile ageism similar or different? Across two studies ( Ns = 254 and 292), we investigated key individual differences hypothesised to sustain benevolent ageism and hostile expressions of ageism, that is, hostile ageism and intergenerational tension (consumption, succession, identity): social attitudes, personality, values, emotions, belief flexibility, religiosity, and intergenerational conta…
Agnostics’ Well-Being Compared to Believers and Atheists: A Study in Europe’s Religious–Cultural Zones of Christian Heritage
Past research suggests three distinct major trends regarding the links of religion with well-being. First, religious faith contributes to well-being, with believers showing higher well-being than nonbelievers. Alternatively, it is certainty about one’s own worldviews, be they religious or irreligious, that predicts well-being. Finally, secularization moderates the above, making nonbelief normative. We investigated these trends by focusing on agno…
I am agnostic, not atheist”: The role of open-minded, prosocial, and believing dispositions
Does agnosticism versus atheism reflect only epistemic or deeper personality and other individual differences? Following Karim and Saroglou (2023; Belgium), we investigated this question among 537 UK adults, self-identified as Christian, agnostic, or atheist. Agnostics were midway between religionists and atheists on prosocial dispositions (agreeableness, belief in world’s benevolence), outcomes of intuitive thinking (paranormal beliefs, religios…
Being agnostic, not atheist: Personality, cognitive, and ideological differences
Why do several nonreligious people self-identify as agnostic and not as atheist? Beside epistemological differences regarding what is knowledgeable, we hypothesized that such a preference reflects (1) personality dispositions, i.e., prosocial orientation, open-mindedness, but also neuroticism, (2) cognitive preferences, i.e., lower analytic thinking, and (3) ideological inclinations, i.e., openness to spirituality. In a secularized European count…
Awe and social conformity: Awe promotes the endorsement of social norms and conformity to the majority opinion
Given that awe experiences promote collective identity and decrease self-importance, we reasoned that they should lead individuals to be more prone to cherish social conformity value and to adopt conformity behaviors. In two online experiments ( N = 593), compared to neutral and amusement emotional states, awe was found to drive individuals to value the respect of social norms in a greater extent (Experiment 1), and to lead individuals to conform…
Fundamentalism as dogmatic belief, moral rigorism, and strong groupness across cultures: Dimensionality, underlying components, and related interreligious prejudice
Is fundamentalism universal across religious cultures? We investigated this issue by focusing on three questions: (1) the dimensionality of fundamentalism, as measured by the Religious Fundamentalism Scale (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 2004); (2) the very nature of fundamentalism as denoting dogmatic belief, moral rigorism, or strong groupness; and (3) interreligious prejudice as predicted uniquely, additively, or interactively by religiousness and so…
Nostalgia and Spirituality: The Roles of Self-Continuity and Meaning in Life
We investigated the relation between nostalgia and spirituality. We hypothesized that nostalgia is linked to greater spirituality through self-continuity and, in turn, meaning in life. In Study 1, we measured nostalgia and spirituality. Nostalgia predicted greater spirituality. In Study 2, we tested this relation in a nationally representative sample. Nostalgia again predicted greater spirituality, and this relation remained significant after con…
Are atheists unprejudiced? Forms of nonbelief and prejudice toward antiliberal and mainstream religious groups
Building on the ideological-conflict hypothesis, we argue that, beyond the religion-prejudice association, there should exist an irreligion-prejudice association toward groups perceived as actively opposing the values of nonbelievers (antiliberal targets) or even as simply being ideologically different: religionists of mainstream religions. Collecting data from three secularized Western European countries (total N = 1,158), we found that, though …
Personality and values of deconverts: A function of current nonbelief or prior religious socialisation
Research has established meaningful relationships of religiosity and spirituality with personality and values. Little though is known regarding those who have exited faith. Do they resemble socialised believers, due to their prior religious education, or socialised nonbelievers given their current nonbelief? Data from 404 adults in a secularised country (Belgium) indicated that deconverts were more similar to socialised nonbelievers regarding neu…
Believing, Bonding, Behaving, and Belonging: The Cognitive, Emotional, Moral, and Social Dimensions of Religiousness across Cultures
Based on theorization on the four basic dimensions of religiousness, Believing, Bonding, Behaving, and Belonging, and corresponding cognitive, emotional, moral, and social motives and functions of religion, we developed a measure and investigated cross-cultural consistency of the four dimensions as well interindividual and cross-cultural variability. Data were collected from 14 countries varying in religious heritage: Catholicism, Protestantism, …
Religion’s role in the illusion of gender equality: Supraliminal and subliminal religious priming increases benevolent sexism
Sexism has deep roots in human history, including most religious traditions. Many religious organizations and traditions, including Judeo-Christian beliefs, subtly approve of and espouse sexism. Previous research has detailed how religiosity and sexism, particularly benevolent sexism, are positively correlated. Given these connections, we examined whether supraliminal or subliminal religious priming influences reported benevolent and hostile sexi…
Understanding Nonbelievers’ Prejudice toward Ideological Opponents: The Role of Self-Expression Values and Other-Oriented Dispositions
Research adopting the ideological-conflict hypothesis indicates that low religiosity, nonbelief, and antireligious sentiments predict prejudice toward ideological opponents. How to understand this, from an individual differences perspective, given that nonbelievers are typically open-minded and low in authoritarianism? We investigated, among 422 UK adults, social distance from antiliberals (antigay activists), fundamentalists, and religionists of…
Religiosity and Sexual Behavior: Tense Relationships and Underlying Affects and Cognitions in Samples of Christian and Muslim Traditions
Religion's historical mistrust of sexuality shapes people's behavior by inhibiting liberal sexuality. Still, it is unclear whether this inhibitive role also includes common, normative sexual behavior, particularly in secularized contexts. Moreover, the possible mediating effects emotions, affects, and thoughts have on the association between religiosity and restricted sexuality have never been integrated into a single model. Finally, cross-religi…
Societal Level of Religiosity and Religious Identity Expression in Europe
Growing diversity in terms of values and worldviews is one of the main challenges in current European societies. It is often argued that, in these societies, suspicion toward some aspects and forms of religion, if not religion in general is one of the main obstacles toward the acceptance of minority religious practices. In this article, we focused on the role of religion as a part of culture across European societies in allowing or inhibiting the…
Western Anti‐Muslim Prejudice: Value Conflict or Discrimination of Persons Too
Do Western anti‐Muslim attitudes reflect Islamophobia as a general, ethnoreligious prejudice that does not distinguish between persons and ideas, values, or behavior, or are they limited to issues perceived to be in conflict with Western liberal values? In two experiments, we measured discrimination as decreased willingness to help a Muslim versus non‐Muslim to undertake an action that was either neutral or possibly in conflict with Western liber…
Awe’s effects on generosity and helping
It is unclear whether positive emotionality in general, or some specific positive emotions (e.g. other-oriented ones), but not others (e.g. self-oriented and, possibly, stimulus-oriented ones), enhance prosocial thoughts, dispositions, and behavior. We focus here on awe and argue that, although being primarily stimulus-oriented and not necessarily social in its very nature, awe should enhance prosociality for several theoretical reasons. In repli…
Religion and Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Positive Emotions
Valuing Care Protects Religiosity from the Antisocial Consequences of Impersonal Deontology
Morality typically includes prosociality but often also extends to impersonal deontology. Religion, theoretically and empirically, is concerned with both moral domains. What happens when the two domains are in conflict? Do religious people prefer impersonal deontology at the detriment of prosociality? Or do their prosocial inclinations allow them to transgress conflicting moral principles, for instance through white lies? Participants (177 Belgia…
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 p…
Prosocial Behavior and Religion: New Evidence Based on Projective Measures and Peer Ratings
An important discrepancy seems to exist between self-reports and laboratory studies regarding prosociality among religious people. Some have even suggested that this involves moral hypocrisy on the part of religious people. However, the assumption of the four studies reported here is that the impact of religiousness on prosociality is limited but exists, and does not reflect self-delusion. In Study 1 (N= 106), religious young adults tended not to…
Host society's dislike of the Islamic veil: The role of subtle prejudice, values, and religion
Individual Differences in Religion and Spirituality: An Issue of Personality Traits and/or Values
Personality, in terms of both strict personality traits (five factors) and their cultural adaptations (e.g., values), has systematically been found to predict religion. This article focuses on three issues that still remain unclear: predictiveness of personality facets versus the five factors; predictiveness of values versus personality; and similarities and differences between religiosity and spirituality in their associations with personality a…
Nonconscious influences of religion on prosociality: A priming study
Past literature on the automaticity of social behavior indicates that priming a concept automatically activates related behavioral schemas. In the two present studies we examined the impact of religion on prosociality. In the first study, we tested the impact of subliminal priming of religious concepts on prosocial behavior intentions. We found a main effect of this priming, moderated by valence: prosocial behavior tendencies were stronger when p…
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…
Anti-Islam or Anti-religion? Understanding Objection against Islamic Education
Opposition against the accommodation of Islam in Western societies is often attributed to a prejudice against Muslims. This overlooks the possibility that opposition against Islam could also be caused by a more general aversion towards religion and a desire for a stricter separation between the state and religion in general. Based on the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) of 2012, the current study investigated the non-Muslim majority's attitu…
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 f…
Religious Fundamentalism and Limited Prosociality as a Function of the Target
Two distinct research traditions have established that (a) religiosity implies prosocial tendencies, though limited to proximal targets, and (b) religious fundamentalism (RF) relates to prejudice, often because of underlying right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). Through two studies, we investigated the idea that RF, due to underlying religiosity, also predicts prosociality that is limited to proximal rather than distal targets. Specifically, we foun…
Meta‐stereotypes of Groups with Opposite Religious Views: Believers and Non‐Believers
Recent research on meta‐stereotypes, that is, ingroup members' beliefs about how the outgroup sees them, may be of importance for intergroup relations between believers and non‐believers, especially in the context of increasingly secularized societies. How do believers and non‐believers think that outgroup members, respectively non‐believers and believers, see them? Do these meta‐stereotypes accurately reflect the outgroup's actual stereotypes? W…
Believing, Bonding, Behaving, and Belonging: The Cognitive, Emotional, Moral, and Social Dimensions of Religiousness across Cultures
Based on theorization on the four basic dimensions of religiousness, Believing, Bonding, Behaving, and Belonging, and corresponding cognitive, emotional, moral, and social motives and functions of religion, we developed a measure and investigated cross-cultural consistency of the four dimensions as well interindividual and cross-cultural variability. Data were collected from 14 countries varying in religious heritage: Catholicism, Protestantism, …
Religion and sense of humor: An a priori incompatibility? Theoretical considerations from a psychological perspective
Although humor is not absent from religion, one may wonder whether religion's historical mistrust of the comic is not accidental, but reflects a deeper reality. Based on theory and research on both psychology of humor and psychology of religion, as well as on the psychological anthropology of early Christianity, the present paper inspects the ways in which religion is related to personality traits, cognitive structures and social consequences ass…
Western Anti‐Muslim Prejudice: Value Conflict or Discrimination of Persons Too
Do Western anti‐Muslim attitudes reflect Islamophobia as a general, ethnoreligious prejudice that does not distinguish between persons and ideas, values, or behavior, or are they limited to issues perceived to be in conflict with Western liberal values? In two experiments, we measured discrimination as decreased willingness to help a Muslim versus non‐Muslim to undertake an action that was either neutral or possibly in conflict with Western liber…
Beyond Mere Compliance to Authoritative Figures: Religious Priming Increases Conformity to Informational Influence Among Submissive People
Religious priming activates submissive thoughts and facilitates compliance to authority's request for revenge among individuals with high dispositional submissiveness (Saroglou, Corneille, & Van Cappellen, 2009 Saroglou, V., Corneille, O. and Van Cappellen, P. 2009. Speak, Lord, your servant is listening: Religious priming activates submissive thoughts and behaviors. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 19: 143–154. [Taylor &…
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 psychol…
Research: Being Buddhist in Western Europe: Cognitive Needs, Prosocial Character, and Values
Empirical evidence from a variety of monotheistic religious denominations allows for some solid conclusions regarding personality characteristics (prosociality), cog-nitive structure (need for closure), and importance of values (Schwartz’s model) as-sociated with religiousness. In this study, 105 Belgian Buddhists were administered the Need for Closure Scale, the Schwartz Value Survey, NEO-PI-R items measuring facets of agreeableness, and measure…
Liking sick humor: Coping styles and religion as predictors
Previous studies have investigated how humor in general, but not specific humor styles in particular, is related to different coping styles. In the present study, 256 adults were asked to rate the funniness of 24 written jokes selected by the authors as representative of sick humor (humor on death, disgusting jokes, and jokes on disabled persons) and neutral, non-sick humor. In addition, they completed the Brief COPE Inventory (Carver 1997) and a…
East Asian Religious Tolerance-A Myth or a Reality? Empirical Investigations of Religious Prejudice in East Asian Societies
Is East Asian religious tolerance, as opposed to Western monotheistic prejudice, a stereotype or a reality? Based on theoretical and empirical evidence, we hypothesized low prejudice as a function of East Asian religiosity. We examined whether this holds true for interreligious, anti-atheist, ethnic, and anti-gay prejudice. In Study 1, analysis of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) 2008 data from Eastern religious and Christian sample…
Religious Prosociality and Aggression: It's Real
Individual religiosity relates to prosocial attitudes, behavioral intentions, and behaviors of minimal (no/low cost; limited to in-group members) prosociality in hypothetical situations. Yet evidence on religious prosociality through other-oriented, costly helping behavior in real life is still to be documented. Similarly, religiosity relates to cognitive, emotional, and attitudinal components of prejudice toward moral out-groups. Evidence on rea…
Religiosity and Prosocial Behavior Among Churchgoers: Exploring Underlying Mechanisms
Research has shown that religious beliefs and practices are related, to some extent, to prosocial behaviors, but less is known about why it is so. In addition, participating in the traditional Christian ritual (Sunday Mass) may be particularly powerful in eliciting prosocial behavior among believers. The present study explores the aspects of the Sunday Mass that may be involved in the activation of religious prosociality. The social, emotional, a…
East Asian religious tolerance versus Western monotheist prejudice: The role of (in)tolerance of contradiction
Accumulated research has shown that Western Christian religiosity often predicts prejudice toward various kinds of outgroups. On the contrary, initial recent evidence indicates that East Asian religiosity predicts tolerance of various outgroups—except atheists. To understand these differences, we investigated cognitive (intolerance of contradiction) and emotional (disgust) mechanisms possibly mediating the link between religiosity and prejudice v…
Is religion not prosocial at all? Comment on Galen (2012)
Galen (2012), critically reviewing recent research on religion and prosociality, concludes that the religious prosociality hypothesis is a (congruence) fallacy. The observed effects are not real: They only reflect stereotypes and ingroup favoritism, are due to secular psychological effects, are inconsistent, and confound (e.g., by ignoring curvilinear relationships) those low in religiosity with nonbelievers. In this commentary, a distinction is …
When authoritarianism meets religion: Sacrificing others in the name of abstract deontology
Authoritarianism is a stable construct in terms of individual differences (social attitudes based on personality and values), but its manifestations and behavioral outcomes may depend on contextual factors. In the present experiment, we investigated whether authoritarianism is sensitive to religious influences in predicting rigid morality. Specifically, we investigated whether authoritarians, after supraliminal religious priming, would show, in h…
Intergroup Conflict, Religious Fundamentalism, and Culture
Kashima underlines the importance of considering religion as a major contemporary cultural source of intergroup conflict around the world. In this commentary, I first examine theory and psychological research either discrediting or crediting religion per se, including fundamentalism, as being a cultural cause of intergroup conflict and violence. The evidence is in favor of the latter. Second, I propose a model of cultural psychological diversity …
For Better or Worse: Fundamentalists' Attitudes Toward Outgroups as a Function of Exposure to Authoritative Religious Texts
Fundamentalism not only predicts prejudice toward outgroups but also prosociality toward proximal targets and ingroups. Taking things a step further, we hypothesized that because fundamentalists tend to show submission to religious authority, their attitudes toward unknown targets and outgroups may vary significantly depending on the nature of the authoritative religious texts to which they are exposed. In three studies using hypothetical scenari…
Redeeming Laughter: The Comic Dimension of Human Experience
Amid the variety of human experiences, the comic occupies a distinctive place. It is simultaneously ubiquitous, relative, and fragile. In this book, Peter L. Berger reflects on the nature of the comic and its relationship to other human experiences. Originally published in 1997, the second edition includes a new preface reflecting on Berger's work in the intervening years, particularly on the relationship between humor and modernity
Personality and Religion: From Eysenck's Taxonomy to the Five-Factor Model
The aim of this paper is to explore whether and how the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality – also known as the Big Five – may be relevant to psychology of religion. First, we review empirical research which has used Eysenck's taxonomy. Second, after a brief presentation of the FFM, we hypothesize, on the basis of research in the Eysenck framework as well as on the basis of research in psychology of religion generally, how each of the five fac…
Does religion affect humour creation? An experimental study
Humour has been hypothesized to be negatively affected by religion. In a recent study (Saroglou, 2000), religiosity and religious fundamentalism (contrary to 'quest' religiosity) were found to be negatively associated with humour creation. The present experiment investigated whether this association reflects causality. Eighty-five students were tested for their propensity to spontaneously produce humour as a response to hypothetical daily hassles…
Does religion affect humour creation? An experimental study
Humour has been hypothesized to be negatively affected by religion. In a recent study (Saroglou, 2000), religiosity and religious fundamentalism (contrary to 'quest' religiosity) were found to be negatively associated with humour creation. The present experiment investigated whether this association reflects causality. Eighty-five students were tested for their propensity to spontaneously produce humour as a response to hypothetical daily hassles…
Religion and the five factors of personality: A meta-analytic review
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 religiosit…
Humor Appreciation as Function of Religious Dimensions
Religion and specific religious dimensions have been hypothesized to reflect and have an effect on sense of humor, especially from a personality psychology perspective. Some empirical evidence tends to confirm this hypothesis, at least when behavioral (spontaneous humor creation) measure but not questionnaires are used. However, sense of humor is not restricted to humor creation, but includes other components such as humor appreciation. In the pr…
Religiousness, Religious Fundamentalism, and Quest as Predictors of Humor Creation
Theory and research on humor as well as on religion, focused on related personality traits, cognitive structures, and social consequences, lead to the hypothesis that religiousness is negatively associated with humor. In this study, 72 individuals were tested in their propensity to spontaneously produce humor in response to hypothetical daily hassles. Religiousness and religious fundamentalism were found to be negatively correlated with humor cre…
Religion and sense of humor: An a priori incompatibility? Theoretical considerations from a psychological perspective
Although humor is not absent from religion, one may wonder whether religion's historical mistrust of the comic is not accidental, but reflects a deeper reality. Based on theory and research on both psychology of humor and psychology of religion, as well as on the psychological anthropology of early Christianity, the present paper inspects the ways in which religion is related to personality traits, cognitive structures and social consequences ass…
Trans-Cultural/Religious Constants vs. Cross-Cultural/Religious Differences in Psychological Aspects of Religion
Are there trans-religious, trans-cultural constants in psychological aspects of religion across different religions and cultures? An excessively culturalistic approach may overlook this possibility, putting an emphasis on the uniqueness of the religious phenomenon studied as emerging from a complex of multiple contextual factors. This article reviews empirical studies in psychology of religion in the 1990s that mainly include participants from di…
Values and religiosity: A meta-analysis of studies using Schwartz’s model
Being religious implies being different in humour: Evidence from self- and peer-ratings
Previous research indicated negative associations between religiosity and humour creation and appreciation. The present studies on 175 students (study 1) and 196 adults from married couples (study 2) investigated the links between religiosity and spirituality and the use of specific humour styles (assessed on the basis of Martin et al. (2003 Martin, RA, Puhlik-Doris, P, Larsen, G, Gray, J and Weir, K. 2003. Individual differences in uses of humor…
Liking sick humor: Coping styles and religion as predictors
Previous studies have investigated how humor in general, but not specific humor styles in particular, is related to different coping styles. In the present study, 256 adults were asked to rate the funniness of 24 written jokes selected by the authors as representative of sick humor (humor on death, disgusting jokes, and jokes on disabled persons) and neutral, non-sick humor. In addition, they completed the Brief COPE Inventory (Carver 1997) and a…
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 f…
Prosocial Behavior and Religion: New Evidence Based on Projective Measures and Peer Ratings
An important discrepancy seems to exist between self-reports and laboratory studies regarding prosociality among religious people. Some have even suggested that this involves moral hypocrisy on the part of religious people. However, the assumption of the four studies reported here is that the impact of religiousness on prosociality is limited but exists, and does not reflect self-delusion. In Study 1 (N= 106), religious young adults tended not to…
Religious Bricolage as a Psychological Reality: Limits, Structures and Dynamics
English The contemporary proliferation in sociology of religion of terms such as “religious bricolage” or “religion à la carte” as reflecting clear tendencies in modern religious and spiritual expressions leaves the psychologist of religion somewhat perplexed. Although no empirical studies of such phenomena exist from a psychological perspective, related theory and research from other psychological domains can provide material that allows us to q…
Jewish Identity, Values, and Religion in a Globalized World: A Study of Late Adolescents
Multiple identities are becoming an increasingly important issue in a globalized world. This study examines the interference of Jewish identity with other collective identities, national and transnational, as well as the influence of religion and values on Jewish and other collective identities in Jewish late adolescents in Belgium. We compared data with those of a previous study on native Belgians and Muslim immi-grants (Saroglou & Galand, 2004)…
Research: Being Buddhist in Western Europe: Cognitive Needs, Prosocial Character, and Values
Empirical evidence from a variety of monotheistic religious denominations allows for some solid conclusions regarding personality characteristics (prosociality), cog-nitive structure (need for closure), and importance of values (Schwartz’s model) as-sociated with religiousness. In this study, 105 Belgian Buddhists were administered the Need for Closure Scale, the Schwartz Value Survey, NEO-PI-R items measuring facets of agreeableness, and measure…
Cognitive and emotional characteristics of New Religious Movement members: New questions and data on the mental health issue
The common assumption that members of so-called “cults” and New Religious Movements (NRMs) have mental health problems is usually countered by empirical research suggesting a normal personality profile. Going further than the normality–pathology distinction, we investigated affective-relational (parental and adult attachment) and cognitive (need for closure) needs, world assumptions, and past and present depression as reported by members (N = 113…
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 c…
Nonconscious influences of religion on prosociality: A priming study
Past literature on the automaticity of social behavior indicates that priming a concept automatically activates related behavioral schemas. In the two present studies we examined the impact of religion on prosociality. In the first study, we tested the impact of subliminal priming of religious concepts on prosocial behavior intentions. We found a main effect of this priming, moderated by valence: prosocial behavior tendencies were stronger when p…
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 …
Believing literally versus symbolically: Values and personality correlates among Spanish students
Values and personality correlates of general religiousness may be specific and even different when one distinguishes between Exclusion versus Inclusion of Transcendence and Literal versus Symbolic thinking on religious issues. In the present study, 133 Spanish students were administered the Schwartz Value Survey, the NEO‐PI‐R and the Post‐Critical Belief scale. Exclusion versus Inclusion of Transcendence reflected the conflict between openness to…
Feeling Good, but Lacking Autonomy: Closed-Mindedness on Social and Moral Issues in New Religious Movements
Joining and leaving a new religious movement: A study of ex-members’ mental health
The impact of membership in new, often socially contested, religious movements (NRMs) on mental health of members and ex-members is still a controversial question in the psychological literature. In the present study, we interviewed 20 ex-members of various NRMs who also completed questionnaires measuring several cognitive (need for closure, world assumptions) and affective-emotional (parental and adult attachment, social relationships, depressio…
Psychology (66 works) · Social Psychology (65 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (44 works) · Religiosity (32 works) · Social Psychology (32 works) · Sociology (29 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (27 works) · Political science (25 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (24 works) · Personality (20 works)