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Living -
The Dialogue
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TS-Si News Service
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Saturday, 11 December 2010 09:00 |
 Washington, DC, USA. While the positive correlation between religiosity and life satisfaction has long been known, a new study reveals religion's secret ingredient that makes people happier.
"Our study offers compelling evidence that it is the social aspects of religion rather than theology or spirituality that leads to life satisfaction," said Chaeyoon Lim, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who led the study. "In particular, we find that friendships built in religious congregations are the secret ingredient in religion that makes people happier."
The study's findings are applicable to the three main Christian traditions (Mainline Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, and Catholic). "We also find similar patterns among Jews and Mormons, even with a much smaller sample size," said Lim, who noted that there were not enough Muslims or Buddhists in the data set to test the model for those groups.
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Last Updated on Friday, 10 December 2010 22:13 |
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Living -
The Dialogue
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TS-Si News Service
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Sunday, 05 December 2010 15:00 |
 Ann Arbor, MI, USA. Americans are much more likely to exaggerate their attendance at religious services than are people in many other countries, says a new study. While people in the USA have long been viewed as exceptionally religious — if not condescending — when compared to other nations in the developed world, this study suggests that American religiosity is exceptional in identity, but not in actual behavior.
In the United States (and to a lesser extent in Canada) there is a substantial gap between what is said about religion and what professed adherents actually do. This has been true for the last several decades, says Philip Brenner.
Social conflicts between believers and non-believers are often framed on the basis of presumed church attendance and doctrinal allegiances. However, opponents can find themselves on uncertain ground when making absolute critiques of their adversaries' positions when the very basis for their characterizations are unproven.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 05 December 2010 15:16 |
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Living -
The Dialogue
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TS-Si News Service
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Saturday, 27 November 2010 03:00 |
 Royal Holloway, Egham Hill, UK. When subconsciously exposed to religious ideas and concepts, religious people are far more likely to actively punish those they believe are acting selfishly and unfairly, a new study reveals.
Biologists have found it anomalous that religions are so successful since evolutionary processes eliminate practices which squander energy or resources. However, religions prosper despite encouraging this behavior.
One explanation is that costly religious practices persist because they promote and enforce cooperative behavior within religious groups.
Research led by Dr Ryan McKay from Royal Holloway, University of London reveals that for those who financially support religious institutions, subliminal religious messages strongly increase the costly punishment of unfair behavior, even when such punishment is to their individual material disadvantage. The findings appear in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
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Last Updated on Friday, 26 November 2010 23:09 |
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Living -
The Dialogue
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TS-Si News Service
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Saturday, 25 September 2010 08:00 |
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State College, PA, USA. People who leave strict religious groups are more likely to say their health is worse than members who remain in the group, according to a Penn State University researcher. The percentage of people who left a strict religious group and reported they were in excellent health was about half that of people who stayed in the group, said Christopher Scheitle.
"Previous research showed some association between belonging to a religious group and positive health outcomes," Scheitle said. "We became interested in what would happen to your health if you left a religious group. Would people demonstrate any negative health outcomes?"
The researchers reported their findings in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. About 40 percent of members of strict religious groups reported they were in excellent health, according to the study. However, only 25 percent of members in those groups who switched to another religion reported they were in excellent health. The percentage of the strict religious group members who dropped out of religion completely and said their health was excellent fell to 20 percent. The difference between switchers and non-switchers, in reference to health, is statistically significant for the strict groups.
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Last Updated on Friday, 24 September 2010 23:42 |
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Living -
The Dialogue
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TS-Si News Service
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Thursday, 09 September 2010 08:00 |
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Beer-Sheva, Israel. A new pre-publication study reveals that women in the United States generally derive more happiness from religious participation than from shopping on Sundays. Additionally, the repeal of "blue laws," which allow stores to open on Sundays, has a negative effect on the level of religious participation of white women and therefore has a negative impact on their happiness.
Interestingly, the authors did not observe any significant decline in reported happiness of other groups whose religious participation was not significantly affected by repeal.
The research also reveals that when Sunday blue laws are repealed, women who choose secular activities, such as shopping, are not happier. The repeal of blue laws decreases the relative probability of being at least "pretty happy" relative to "not happy" by about 17 percent.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 08 September 2010 10:33 |
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