The relationships of family income and caste-status with religiousness: Mediation role of intolerance of uncertainty

Abstract

The relationship between lower socioeconomic status (SES) and religiousness is well known; however, its (psychological mediation) mechanism is not clear. In the present study, we studied the mediation role of intolerance of uncertainty (IU; a personality measure of self-uncertainty) in the effect of SES on religiousness and its dimensions (i.e., believing, bonding, behaving, and belonging), in two different samples (students sample, N = 868, and community sample, N = 250), after controlling the effects of factors like age, sex, handedness, and self-reported risk-taking. The results showed that IU mediated the effects of lower family income and lower caste status (in students’ sample only) on religiousness and its dimensions; higher caste status had a direct effect on religiousness (and its dimensions), and; among the sub-factors of IU, only prospective IU affected religiousness. Thus, along with showing that IU is a mediator of the effects of lower family income and lower caste status on religiousness, the present study supports the contention that religiousness is a latent variable that varied factors can independently initiate. Moreover, the present study suggests a nuanced model of the relationship between the hierarchical caste system and religiousness.

Effects of caste, birth season, and family income on digit ratios

“…In this regard, an advertisement was placed on college notice boards and participants were also actively approached. All the participants that came to the psychology laboratory for assessment were additionally measured for digit lengths (along with the other self‐reported measurements, detailed elsewhere, Kumar & Voracek, 2022). The present study is related to this sample (i.e., participants that visited the psychology laboratory).…”

Prayer and Meaningfulness: A Three-Component Model of Religion

“…Perhaps existential insecurity (Norris & Inglehart, 2015), self-uncertainty (Storm, 2017), and the lack of socio-psychological coping resources (McIntosh et al, 1993) are the factors. However, recent studies have shown that intolerance of uncertainty (a basic measure of existential insecurity, self-uncertainty, and coping resources) mediates the relationship of the individual with the transcendent (Kumar & Voracek, 2022). Intolerance of uncertainty is related to losing meaningfulness (Morse et al, 2021), whereas meaningfulness is an important component of good life (Steger, 2009).…”