Relationship Between Religious Belief and Happiness: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Happiness is a feeling that is desired by every human being. To achieve happiness, human try various routes like, to gain financial superiority, fame, entertainment, assets and so on. But on the contrary, religiosity is claimed to be a technique to attain purpose in life, mental health, physical well-being and internal peace, which ultimately leads to happiness in life. This study analyses the studies conducted in last two decades toward understanding the relationship between religiousness and happiness. These studies have been organised in terms of the religions, geographic locations, scales and significance. The study shows that the claim has proven to be true by a vast majority of the surveys irrespective of religion, gender, nationality or race. Although Muslims seems to be the happiest, it requires further verification.

Religiosity As a Moderator between Income and Happiness

“…Religion as a Coping Mechanism. Existing literature has found that religiosity is positively correlated with happiness (Rizvi and Hossain, 2017;Stavrova, Fetchenhauer, and Schlösser, 2013;Manglos, 2013, Sahraian et al, 2013May, 2018;Joshanloo and Weijers, 2016;Yeung 2018). This finding has been, to a large extent, consistent across countries and religious denominations.…”

“…There has also been great curiosity about the importance of income and religiosity (or spirituality) in our daily lives. The existing literature has focused largely on the relationship between income and happiness (Christoph 2010;Boes and Winkelmann 2010;Mentzakis and Moro 2009;Rukumnuaykit 2016) and the relationship between religiosity and happiness (Manglos 2013;Rizvi and Hossain 2017;Sahraian et al 2013;Stavrova, Fetchenhauer, and Schloesser 2013). Although there has been extensive research on the relationship between income and happiness and the relationship between religiosity and happiness, there are very few studies that explore the relationship between the three variables: income, religiosity, and happiness (Joshanloo and Weijers 2016).…”

“…A majority of the studies that explored this question found a positive correlation between religiosity and happiness across all religions. Moreover, these studies have found that religion helps people cope with negative circumstances in their life and gives them a sense of meaning of life (Joshanloo and Weijers 2016;Manglos 2013;Rizvi and Hossain 2017;Ellison and Lee, 2010). When someone religious is going through financial difficulties, they are likely to have thoughts such as, "This too shall pass," "God won't give me a load I cannot handle," and "God will change my situation when the time is right."…”

“…Some scholars found a positive, significant relationship between religion and happiness. But some found a negative, significant relationship, and some found no relationship at all (Lu and Gao, 2017;Stavrova, Fetchenhauer, and Schlösser, 2013;May, 2018;Rizvi and Hossain, 2017). These authors argue that these inconsistencies are due to the fact that the effect of religion depends on how much of a social norm religion is in that community or country (Stavrova, Fetchenhauer, and Schlösser, 2013).…”

Who justifies attacks on civilians? Analysis of attitudes toward terrorism based on value surveys

“…9 The Cramer's V statistic is appropriate for measuring correlations between two categorical variables and ranges between 0 and 1, with higher values indicating stronger correlations between the two variables. 10 This result obtained in a cross-country setting with nationally representative surveys from many developing countries, is not surprising, although it contrasts the findings of positive association between happiness and religiosity in country-specific studies using, in many cases, relatively small samples that are not representative at the national level (see Appendix in Rizvi & Hossain, 2017). The few cross-country studies on this topic also do not find a direct positive association between religiosity and happiness.…”