Religiosity and the Spread of COVID-19: A Multinational Comparison

Abstract

This article considers the relationships between population religiosity and the coronavirus pandemic situation across different countries. Country-level analyses were based on data from the World Values Survey, Worldometer, and International Monetary Fund covering information about internal (beliefs) and external (practices) religiosity, religious fundamentalism, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the economic situation at two time points in 47 countries. Results showed that declared attendance at religious services is related to more COVID-19 infections and deaths, as well as when controlling for gross domestic product per capita and the number of coronavirus tests per 1 million population. This effect remained in the longitudinal perspective (of six months) and extended from external religiosity only, to both internal and external religiosity indices. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10943-022-01521-9.

Cross-National Comparison of Religion as a Predictor of COVID-19 Vaccination Rates

“…Some studies have demonstrated that religious people have defied and ignored governmental recommendations on protective behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic (Dein et al, 2020 ; Drążkowski & Trepanowski, 2021 ; Kranz et al, 2020 ; Milligan et al, 2021 ). For instance, people representing some religious denominations (e.g., Evangelicals) show resistance to COVID-19 prevention measures by not wearing masks (Adida et al, 2021 ; Gonzalez et al, 2021 ), ignoring social distancing recommendations (DeFranza et al, 2021 ; Linke, & Jankowski, 2022 ), or refusing to get tested for COVID-19 (Linke & Jankowski, 2020 ).…”

“…Linke and Jankowski ( 2022 ) showed that in societies with lower trust in science and a greater number of believers, people tend to test themselves less, and that gross domestic product further explains this relationship. Additionally, the authors indicated religious fundamentalism and internal religiosity as predictive of a lesser number of tests.…”

Exploring the Benefits of Yoga for Mental and Physical Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…In the United States, state governments generally argued for such mandatory closures on the basis of the Supreme Court decision in Department of Human Resources Oregon vs. Alfred Smith (1989) that if a law was enacted that encroached on religious liberty but did so for the public good and did not single out any particular religion for unequal treatment, then such policies could be construed as permissible under the US Constitution (Levison and Segall 2020, p. 1). In the earliest days of the virus before vaccines and therapeutic treatments were widely available, as well as in subsequent months where large gatherings were established as transmissible events, many early cases of mass contagion were traced to religious gatherings (Linke andJankowski 2022, p. 1641). As businesses were gradually allowed to open at reduced capacity, some states such as California still required religious institutions to remain shuttered.…”

Religious Fundamentalism, Delusions, and Conspiracy Beliefs Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Research conducted in the United States showed that supporters of liberal parties more often respected the restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, while supporters of right-wing religious groups ignored these restrictions more often than supporters of other groups [ 8 , 11 , 12 ]. Indeed, stay-at-home orders were less adhered to in more religious communities in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 13 ], and attendance at religious services was related to both more COVID-19 infections and more deaths [ 14 ].…”

“…The abovementioned mechanisms might be of particular importance in countries with high religiosity rates, because in such countries more COVID-19 infections are observed, even after considering the control of a country’s gross domestic product per capita [ 14 ]. Poland is an example of a developed country with 85% of the population identifying as Roman Catholic [ 19 ].…”