War, traumatic health shocks, and religiosity

Cesur, Resul; Freidman, Travis; Sabia, Joseph J.

doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2020.08.016

Cited by 17 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 91 publications

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“…Results from both papers are consistent with the religious coping hypothesis. Cesur et al (2020) and Shai (2022) present evidence consistent with the idea that individuals turn to religion to cope with the effects of wars. For example, Cesur et al (2020) consider the causal effect of assigning US Armed Forces active-duty servicemen to combat instead of non-combat overseas deployment, finding a higher probability of attending religious services weekly and engaging in private prayer.…”

Section: Literaturesupporting

confidence: 74%

“…Cesur et al (2020) and Shai (2022) present evidence consistent with the idea that individuals turn to religion to cope with the effects of wars. For example, Cesur et al (2020) consider the causal effect of assigning US Armed Forces active-duty servicemen to combat instead of non-combat overseas deployment, finding a higher probability of attending religious services weekly and engaging in private prayer. Henrich et al (2019) similarly study the link between war and religiosity, finding that people from Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Tajikistan with greater exposure to wars show a higher religious activity even years after the conflict.…”

Section: Literaturesupporting

confidence: 74%

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A family member's death increases religious activity: Evidence from Germany

Friehe,

Pfeifer

2024

Kyklos

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Religiosity influences economic behavior in various domains, but what determines religiosity? Using data from the representative Socio‐Economic Panel Study for Germany (SOEP), this paper shows that religious activity increases after a family member's death. The life event's effect is larger after a partner's death when compared to a parent's death. Our results indicate that the influence of a family member's death on religious activity is temporary and are consistent with the religious coping hypothesis.

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Section: Literaturesupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Literaturesupporting

confidence: 74%

A family member's death increases religious activity: Evidence from Germany

Friehe,

Pfeifer

2024

Kyklos

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“…What are the broader implications of this study? First, our findings directly speak to research on the hypothesized link between exposure to war-related conflicts and religiosity (Cesur et al, 2020;Du & Chi, 2016;Henrich et al, 2019;Immerzeel & Van Tubergen, 2011;Keinan, 1994;Ruiter & Van Tubergen, 2009;Schuster et al, 2001;Shai, 2022;Sosis & Handwerker, 2011;Zussman, 2014). Although earlier work provided empirical support for the conflict-religiosity hypothesis, concerns about bias from selection and omitted variables remained.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 48%

“…Yet, compelling evidence for the conflict-religiosity hypothesis is limited due to the possibility of endogenous selection, i.e., unobserved characteristics associated with people's religiosity and exposure to violent conflicts (Cesur, Freidman, & Sabia, 2020;Henrich et al, 2019;Shai, 2022;Zussman, 2014). In addition, earlier work has paid little attention to two different mechanisms that specify under which conditions violent conflicts lead to increased adherence to religious norms and religious coping.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conflict intensity in the region of birth increases religiosity among refugees

Tubergen¹,

Kosyakova²,

Kanas³

2022

Preprint

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Do violent conflicts increase religiosity? This study draws on evidence from a large-scale survey on refugees in Germany linked with data on time-varying conflict intensity in refugees’ birth regions prior to the survey interview. The results show that the greater the number of conflict-induced fatalities in the period before the interview, the more often refugees pray. The relationship between conflict and praying holds equally across demographic subgroups. Evidence suggests that both short- and long-term cumulative fatalities in refugees’ birth regions affect how often they pray. Additionally, the link between conflict and praying is stronger for refugees who have family and relatives still living in their country of origin. Finally, we show that the conflicts that matter are those occurring within the refugees’ specific region of birth rather than in other regions in the country. Implications for existential insecurity theory and cultural evolutionary theory are discussed.

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“…Second, in times of health distress, people are psychologically troubled and may turn to religion if additional psychological benefits (non-material motives) from religion raise utility and material advantages (Tan and Vogel, 2008;Stroope, 2012). Adverse life events introduced by the pandemic not only involve loss of livelihoods, but they also involve a trauma which makes the psychological benefits of religion greater for the sick than the sick but secular individual (Williams et al, 1991;Miller et al, 2012;Bentzen, 2019;Cesur et al, 2020). Earlier findings suggest a motivation for religious participation to extend beyond material consumption to include things like afterlife utility (Azzi and Ehrenberg, 1975), happiness (Dehejia et al, 2007), and protection against psychological harm, for instance, from marital separation (Clark and Lelkes, 2005).…”

Section: Equilibrium: Religion Participation Amidst Disease Outbreaksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contagious crowds and rational faithfuls: a club theory approach

Animashaun

2023

IJSE

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PurposeThis study investigates the observed resurgence in religious beliefs seen across many societies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the economic theory of religious clubs, the author models religious participation during the pandemic as a mechanism for alleviating the financial distress associated with the health distress from the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachUsing data from the COVID-19 National Longitudinal Phone Survey (NLPS) in Nigeria, the author investigates the economic motivation for religious intensity during the COVID-19 pandemic. To address endogeneity concerns, the author exploits geographic variables of temperature and longitudes as sources of COVID-19 risk.FindingsOverall, health distress stimulates religious intensity. Consistent with the economic theory of religious clubs, adverse health shocks stimulate financial distress, and the effect is stronger among religious participants. Similarly, people see God and not the government as a source of protection against COVID-19.Research limitations/implications The study’s model sees religious organizations as public goods providers, especially when governments and markets are inefficient.Practical implicationsThe study’s recommendations support an expanded role for religious networks in healthcare delivery and more public funding to attenuate the post-pandemic resurgence of social violence in economically distressed regions.Social implicationsDespite the research interest in the COVID-19 pandemic, the long-term implications, many of which relate to social behavior adjustments that cause individuals to identify more closely with their social group, need greater understanding. Suppose religious intensity is linked to economic distress. In that case, this is a major source of worry for countries whose economies are subject to higher fluctuations and where the governments and markets are inefficiently organized. These regions may be more susceptible to a resurgence in religious fundamentalism associated with the economic shocks from the pandemic. Consequently, these regions would require more public funding to attenuate the potential for costly activities like organized violence, suicide attacks and terrorist activities in the aftermath of the pandemic.Originality/valuePrompted by the observation of the increase in religious identity through religious intensity during the pandemic, the author contributes by developing theoretically-based hypotheses that are incentive-compatible to provide a rational justification for the observation. The author empirically validates the hypothesis by taking advantage of the COVID-19 National Survey in Nigeria by specifically using survey rounds 4 and 7 which have more comprehensive religious items included.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-11-2022-0719

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War, traumatic health shocks, and religiosity

Cited by 17 publications

References 91 publications

A family member's death increases religious activity: Evidence from Germany

A family member's death increases religious activity: Evidence from Germany

Conflict intensity in the region of birth increases religiosity among refugees

Contagious crowds and rational faithfuls: a club theory approach

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