Happiness for Believers? Contextualizing the Effects of Religiosity on Life-Satisfaction
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2235534 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jan Eichhorn (0000-0003-4988-8891, University of Edinburgh, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 583-593 |
| Publication date | 2012-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | European Sociological Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0266-7215 • E-ISSN: 1468-2672 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/esr/jcr027 |
| OpenAlex | W2082100281 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 42 |
| References cited | 30 |
Many studies have suggested that higher levels of individual religiosity (as personal belief and as institutional practice) are associated with higher levels of personal life-satisfaction. These findings led to the conventional inclusion of religiosity into quantitative life-satisfaction analyses as control variable and the formulation of policy recommendations about community and personal well-being. However, samples have so far been restricted to within-country analyses disregarding relevant contextual influences. This article investigates the influence of personal religiosity (attitudinal and practiced) on life-satisfaction taking into account the effects of country-levels of the respective religiosity measures. Analysing data from 43 European and Anglo-Saxon societies obtained from the World Values Survey and employing a hierarchical-linear model controlling for relevant socio-economic factors, previous findings are strongly called into question. Positive effects of individual religiosity on life-satisfaction are rendered statistically insignificant once contextualization effects are applied. However, a significant positive interaction effect is found for personal attitudinal religiosity and societal levels of religious belief and practice. Accordingly personal religiosity appears to be associated only with higher levels of life-satisfaction in societies where religiosity is higher on average as well. Instead of an intrinsic importance of individual religiosity, societal conformity mechanisms appear to be conducive to greater happiness levels.
Conformity · Happiness · Life satisfaction · Multilevel model · Religiosity · Statistics · World Values Survey · Cultural Differences and Values · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction · Psychology · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology
Examining the relation of religion and spirituality to subjective well-being across national cultures
The relation between religion/spirituality and mental health is mediated by self-compassion
Well-being and environmental quality
Does religious belief promote prosociality? A critical examination
The religiosity as social value hypothesis
Religion and mental health
Religion and Mental Health
The Influence of Air Pollution on Happiness and Willingness to Pay for Clean Air in the Bohai Rim Area of China
God, Father, Mother, Gender
Does government environmental governance information disclosure improve residents’ subjective well-being? Evidence from China
Can religion (un)zombify? The trajectories of psychic capture theology in postcolonial South Africa
Are religion and happiness on same side
Religion, Self-Rated Health, and Mortality
The Effects of Postmaterialist Values on Average Life Satisfaction at the Country Level
Elements of a Sociological Contribution to Happiness Studies
Religiosity and life satisfaction
The impact of cultural dimensions on happiness, with special reference to the Member States of the European union
Cross-Sectional Model-Building for Research on Subjective Well-Being
Gender differences in life satisfaction and spiritual health among the junior immigrant and local Hong Kong secondary students
Religiosity Dimensions and Disability-Free Life Expectancy in Taiwan
God Perfectionism as a Mediator of Intrinsic Religiosity and Life Satisfaction
Godless in the Great White North
Relations of the Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire Domains with Other Areas of Well-Being
Religiosity and subjective well-being in the Arab context
Study on a Christian Chinese sample
“Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice”
Religiosity as a predictor of mental health in Egyptian teenagers in preparatory and secondary school
The Salience of Religion Under an Atheist State
Societal Emphasis on Religious Faith as a Cultural Context for Shaping the Social-Psychological Relationships Between Personal Religiosity and Well-Being
Happiness in Hard Times
Does moderation by perceived normativeness of religion occur at the individual level or the country level
Exploring the Linkages Between Beliefs, Practices and Well-being of Kalpvasis
Leisure satisfaction and happiness
The determinants of the link between life satisfaction and job satisfaction across Europe
The Relationship Between Financial Distress and Life-Course Socioeconomic Inequalities in Well-Being
Dimensions of religiosity, altruism and life satisfaction
Parenthood in Europe
Exploratory Analysis of the Relationship between Happiness and Religious Participation within China
Where Happiness Varies
A Complex Simplicity
Faith or Social Foci? Happiness, Religion, and Social Networks in Sweden
Faith and Happiness in China
Flow at Work
Religion and the Quality of Life
Culture and conceptions of happiness
Experience Sampling
Cultural constructions of happiness
Living well
Spirituality, Religiousness, and Happiness in Children Aged 8–12 Years
Unemployment as a Social Norm
Will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all?
The social context of well–being
Religion and happiness
Local environmental quality and life-satisfaction in Germany
Church Attendance and Happiness Among Northern Irish Undergraduate Students
Scarring
Income and Happiness
Unhappiness and Unemployment
Economic Disparities and Life Satisfaction in European Regions
Two conceptions of happiness
The structure of psychological well-being revisited
Some Uses of Happiness Data in Economics
The Benefits from Marriage and Religion in the United States
Religiosity, Life Meaning and Wellbeing
| Unique citing works | 42 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,24 |
| Citation span | 1992 - 2025 (34) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 37 |