Week 3 - Functions of Religion

Unpacking SBNR Identity (Johnson et al., 2018)

• Relative to religious and non-religious, SBNR had higher…

  • Individualistic spirituality

  • Belief in God as cosmic force

• No evidence that SBNR were hurt by organized religion

  • BUT perceived themselves as dissimilar to religious groups

• Lingering questions

  • Is it possible to be religious but not spiritual?

  • Is SBNR most prominent in Western cultures where uniqueness is prized?

Categorizing Religions

• Individualism vs. Collectivism

  • Individualism: focus on self as unique entity, separate from others

  • Collectivism: focus on in-group (relationships, important groups)

  • Example

    • Twenty statements test ("I am…")

• Religions as individualistic vs. collectivistic

  • Individualistic (ex: Protestantism): Relative emphasis on personal beliefs, faith

  • Collectivistic (ex: Judaism): Relative emphasis on social identity (community, practices)

    • GOOD TEST QUESTION

Individualism and Collectivism in Religion

• Moral judgements

  • Sid takes care of his aging father but deep down, really hates him. Is Sid a good person?

  • Mr. B fantasizes about people besides his partner but never cheats. Is Mr. B a good person?

• Life-changing experiences

  • "Born-again" more common in Protestantism

• Attributions for others' behavior

  • Protestants - more internal, Catholics - more external

• Limitations of this Approach

  • Differences within religions/denominations

  • Religion may not match broader cultural context

  • All religions involve some combination of individualism and collectivism

  • Defining the "collective"

Ultimate vs. Proximate Factors

• Why are people religious?

  • Ultimate factors: How humans evolved to be religious

    • Over-perception of agency

      • False positive (believing there is danger when there is not) more adaptive than false negative (believing there is no danger when there is)

      • Gods/deities are often perceived as extremely agentic (capable of controlling a multitude of events/outcomes in life)

    • Beliefs in “supernatural watchers” increased cooperation

  • Proximate factors: Why people develop/maintain religious beliefs now

    • Proximate factors tell us about everyday functions of religion

    • Cognitive, motivational (most relevant), social

      • GOOD TEST QUESTION: KNOW THE DIFFERENCE

Functions of Religion

• Meaning

• Control

• Self-enhancement

• Belonging

• Terror management

  • GOOD TEST QUESTION: COME UP WITH EXAMPLE FOR EACH

Meaning

• Two components

  • Explanations for events/outcomes

  • Sense of purpose in life

• Why is religion uniquely capable of providing meaning?

  • Comprehensiveness

  • Accessibility

  • Transcendence

  • Significance

• Example: Religion and Meaning

  • Survey of 1,648 Americans (nationally representative sample)

    • Meaning in life: “My life has a real purpose”

    • Divine involvement: “God is concerned with my personal well-being”; ”God is directly involved in my affairs”

    • Also indicated religious affiliation, religious service attendance

  • Divine involvement and religious service attendance both predicted meaning in life

    • But only among Christians!

    • This doesn’t mean religion-related variables cause meaning in life

Control

• Order, structure, predictability in world

  • Control vs. meaning

    • Control related to but slightly different from meaning

    • You can perceive uncontrollable/unpredictable events (like “acts of God”) as meaningful; and something controllable/predictable can feel relatively meaningless (e.g., ”going through the motions” of rituals)

    • Positive event - to make sure it isn’t just negative events that elicit belief in God

• Example: Personal control and belief in God (Kay et al., 2008)

  • Participants wrote about event they could or could not control

  • Participants indicated belief in God as creator or controller

  • Lack of personal control -> Greater belief in God as controlling

Self- Enhancement

• Seeing oneself as a good/worthy/moral person

  • In many societies, people tend to see religion as a necessary part of morality

• How can self-enhancement be assessed?

  • Socially desirable responding (e.g., “I am always a good listener”)

• Example: Analysis of 75 studies showed positive relation between religiosity and SDR

  • More pronounced in religious societies (US > Canada > UK)

  • More pronounced in religious contexts (Christian universities > secular universities)

  • Even though data are correlational, suggests people may use religion to back up their notion of being a good person

    • Example - incarcerated individuals using newfound religion as argument for why they should be released or, if on death row, not executed (they have become a “better person”)

    • Karla Faye Tucker (who in the 80s killed 2 people with a pickaxe during burglary) argued for a stay of execution, which Pope John Paul II supported; it was ultimately denied

    • “Jailhouse Jesus” or “Jailhouse religion”

      • Inmates become religious during incarceration - there are many reasons why this could happen, but my point here is about arguing for redeeming quality

Belonging

• South Park silly hymn

• Epley et al. (2008)

  • It didn’t matter whether or not participants were religious; control group was “rewarding relationships in life”

• Aydin et al. (2010)

  • Exclusion manipulated by having Ps write about a previous instance; both religious beliefs and religious behaviors measured

• Hales et al. (2016)

  • Cyberball game designed to induce ostracism (or inclusion)

• Participants who were instructed to pray reported greater satisfaction of psychological needs afterward (feeling less like an outsider, feeling powerful, feeling a sense of purpose)

• One can use many different aspects of religion (God, relationships with other religious people, social identity) to fulfill need to belong

• Greenfield & Marks

  • Those who regularly attended services tended to see religion as important to their identity, which in turn predicted greater well-being

Terror Management

• Coping with awareness of eventual mortality

• Examples (Vail et al., 2012)

  • Death reminders increase [decrease] Christians’ belief in God [Buddha, Allah]

  • Death reminders do not affect atheists’ belief in deities

  • Death reminders increase [decrease] Iranian Muslims’ belief in Allah [Buddha, God/Jesus]