The associations between morningness-eveningness, conscientiousness, and religiosity have not been investigated to date. The aim of the present research was to provide evidence for the relationships ...between these dimensions. Moreover, we tested whether the well-established link between morningness and life satisfaction could be explained by elevated religiosity of morning-oriented individuals and whether this relationship may be mediated by conscientiousness. The investigation was conducted on two independent samples of Polish adults (N = 500 and N = 728). Our results corroborated earlier findings that morningness was positively associated with both conscientiousness and satisfaction with life. We also found evidence for a significant positive association between morningness and religiosity. Moreover, controlling for age and gender, we obtained significant mediation effects showing that the association between morningness-eveningness and satisfaction with life might stem, at least in part, from the higher religiosity among morning-oriented individuals, also when conscientiousness was included in the model. It means that more morning-oriented individuals may benefit from higher psychological well-being thanks to both personality characteristics and attitudes towards religion.
Religiosity has been linked to low levels of antisocial personality traits. In the present study (N=661), we examined the relationship between various aspects of religious beliefs (general ...religiosity, intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation), empathy, and the Dark Triad. We found that both empathy and general religiosity were negatively associated with psychopathy and Machiavellianism, and that religious beliefs were positively associated with empathy. Further analyses revealed that empathy partially mediated the inverse relation between dark traits and religious beliefs. These results were discussed in the context of recently emerging concepts suggesting that empathic skills and mentalization are crucial factors for religion. The capability to attribute mind to another being (human or supernatural) is argued to be an essential condition for developing religious beliefs as people usually think of deities as intentional agents with their own mental states. Additionally, the results indicated that psychopathy and Machiavellianism were negatively associated with intrinsic orientation, whereas grandiose and vulnerable narcissism were positively associated with extrinsic orientation.
•Psychopathy and Machiavellianism negatively correlate with declared religiosity.•Empathy mediates the relationship between two dark traits and religiosity.•Narcissism positively correlates with extrinsic religious orientation.•Psychopathy and Machiavellianism negatively correlate with intrinsic orientation.
The associations between morningness-eveningness, conscientiousness, and religiosity have not been investigated to date. The aim of the present research was to provide evidence for the relationships ...between these dimensions. Moreover, we tested whether the well-established link between morningness and life satisfaction could be explained by elevated religiosity of morning-oriented individuals and whether this relationship may be mediated by conscientiousness. The investigation was conducted on two independent samples of Polish adults (N = 500 and N = 728). Our results corroborated earlier findings that morningness was positively associated with both conscientiousness and satisfaction with life. We also found evidence for a significant positive association between morningness and religiosity. Moreover, controlling for age and gender, we obtained significant mediation effects showing that the association between morningness-eveningness and satisfaction with life might stem, at least in part, from the higher religiosity among morning-oriented individuals, also when conscientiousness was included in the model. It means that more morning-oriented individuals may benefit from higher psychological well-being thanks to both personality characteristics and attitudes towards religion.
There has been an increasing interest in the relationship between religion and psychosocial functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Interestingly, emerging recent findings suggest that ...religiousness may have a Janus-face impact on how people cope with the pandemic, leading to both positive and negative social outcomes. In this project, we examine whether two types of religiousness (i.e., centrality of religiosity and religious fundamentalism) are associated with COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and socially undesirable behavior during the pandemic. We suggest that only the most dogmatic and fundamentalistic type of religiousness could lead to conspiracy beliefs, while centrality of religiosity could be unrelated or even negatively related to this type of thinking. In a series of two studies (N = 361 and N = 394) conducted among Polish Roman Catholics, we demonstrate that religious fundamentalism, unlike centrality of religiosity, is positively related to coronavirus conspiracy beliefs, which, in turn, promote socially maladaptive behavior such as freeriding or non-adherence to safety guidelines.
•Religious fundamentalism (RF) is positively related to COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs.•Centrality of religiosity is either unrelated or negatively related to COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs.•COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs mediate the link between RF and maladaptive behavior.
The aim of this study was to compare interdenominational differences in how religiosity is related to life satisfaction, meaning in life, desired and experienced emotions. The two groups included ...were Roman Catholics (n
1
= 145) and Pentecostals (n
2
= 133). The study confirmed the positive relationship between religiosity and life satisfaction as well as meaning in life for the whole sample. Moreover, it was found that Pentecostals reported higher religiosity, meaning in life, social support, and desired emotions strengthening religious beliefs than Catholics. In both groups, a partial mediation of belongingness and identification was observed in the relationship between religiosity and meaning in life. For social support, however, it was established that the mediating effect was stronger in Pentecostals than in Catholics. These results suggest that life satisfaction and meaning in life may be determined both by general factors related to religious involvement as well as by certain specific features of a given denomination.
Studies show that eveningness preference and depressive symptoms are positively related. However, little is known about possible factors that could reduce this association. In the present study, we ...examine the moderating effects of religiosity on the relationship between eveningness and depressive symptoms. The main analyses were conducted on a group of 606 individuals (300 women and 306 men) aged 18 to 36 years (M = 29.00, SD = 4.95). The participants completed the Composite Scale of Morningness, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and the Centrality of Religiosity Scale. Our results confirmed earlier findings that eveningness was positively related to depressive symptoms. The magnitude of this association decreased with higher religiosity. This lead to the conclusion that religiosity may act as a protective factor against elevated depressive symptoms among evening-oriented individuals.
Mentalizing ability, i.e., an ability to attribute mental states to other beings, has been regarded as a chief cognitive predisposition that allows people to believe in supernatural beings. However, ...research on mentalizing ability and religiosity is inconsistent and tainted with methodological vagueness. Most notably, the terms “mentalizing” and “empathy” have often been used interchangeably, which can mask important distinctions between cognitive and emotional foundations of religious belief. To shed light on the role of these two constructs for religiosity, we conducted two studies (N = 314 and N = 236) examining the relationships among cognitive mentalizing ability, emotional empathy, and religiosity. Results showed that measures precisely assessing mentalizing were either unrelated or negatively related to religiosity. Moreover, we found that the link between mentalizing and belief was strongly influenced by the cognitive style of belief. On the other hand, emotional empathy was robustly and positively associated with religiosity. Finally, we also established that a popular tool commonly used as a measure of mentalizing is related to religiosity due to its emotional components, closely connected with empathy. Altogether, these results cast further doubt on the relationship between mentalizing and belief, but they also point to the significance of empathy as a socio-emotional correlate of religiosity.
•Mentalizing ability and emotional empathy are two related but distinct constructs.•Mentalizing is either unrelated or negatively related to religiosity.•Emotional empathy is positively related to religiosity.
Previous research has demonstrated the essential role of time perspective (TP) for numerous vital outcomes, such as health, social behaviors, and well-being. Surprisingly, though, to date the ...association between TP and religiosity has not been systematically investigated. In the present paper, in a series of three studies (a total N > 700), we provide an in-depth empirical insight into the complex interplay between individual differences in the process of temporal framing of human experience and various features of religiosity, including general belief in God, Allport's religious orientations, Huber's centrality of religiosity, and religious fundamentalism. Most importantly, we discovered that positive aspects of religiosity correlated with Past-Positive and Future(-Positive) TP. On the other hand, present temporal focus was associated with instrumental and fundamentalist approaches to religious belief. Altogether, then, our results suggest that religiosity is linked to a broad temporal profile. Moreover, it was also found that associations between time perspectives and religiosity remain significant after controlling for personality traits. The present paper discusses these findings in light of time perspective theory and reflects upon possible causal mechanisms underpinning the observed associations.
Where do religious beliefs come from, and what predisposes people to believe in the supernatural remains an open question in the science of religion. Contemporary theories explaining religion ...typically focus on either evolved biological dispositions or social factors. In the current research, we were interested in how individual differences in emotional empathic concern and the social learning mechanism of being exposed to credible religious acts during childhood interplay to predict religiosity. The study conducted among Polish adults (N = 379) demonstrated that both empathy and childhood experience were positively related to every dimension of the centrality of religiosity. Moreover, it was observed that for all investigated dimensions (except for religious public practice), both empathy and religious social learning were significant and independent predictors. We also found no evidence that empathy moderates the relationship between childhood religious experience and general religiosity. Finally, we also conducted a relative importance analysis to determine the incremental validity of both factors in their prediction of religiosity. It was revealed that being exposed to credible religious acts explained substantially more variance in religiosity than empathy. Altogether, these findings suggest that there are at least two independent factors associated with the emergence of religious belief. One is an individual disposition to feel other-oriented emotions, while the other is a social factor of being exposed to credible religious models during one's upbringing.
Several empirical investigations have demonstrated a positive association between religiosity and emotional empathy. However, most of these studies relied on self-report measures, and therefore were ...criticized for reflecting a self-delusion of believers rather than the actual relationship between the two constructs. The current research addressed this methodological limitation by conducting a simultaneous examination of both self- and other-reports on empathy and religiousness. We recruited 236 adult participants and 223 of their close acquaintances (e.g., partners, close friends, or parents). It was found that more religious individuals reported higher emotional empathy and were also perceived as more empathic by others. This effect was observed specifically for other-oriented feelings of compassion and sympathy and remained significant controlling for gender, age, and social desirability. The study contributes to the knowledge on social correlates of religiousness by demonstrating that its relationship with empathy is not spurious but possibly reflects a true phenomenon that can be observed by both participants themselves and by other people.
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