A many-analysts approach to the relation between religiosity and well-being

Hoogeveen, S.; Sarafoglou, A.; Aczel, B.; Aditya Y.; Alayan, A.J.; Allen, P.J.; ... ; Wagenmakers, E.J. (2022)

Article / Letter to editor

The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N = 10, 535 participants from 24 countries). We recruited 120 analysis teams to investigate (1) whether religious people self-report higher well-being, and (2) whether the relation between religiosity and self-reported well-being depends on perceived cultural norms of religion (i.e., whether it is considered normal and desirable to be religious in a given country). In a two-stage procedure, the teams first created an analysis plan and then executed their planned analysis on the data. For the first research question, all but 3 teams reported positive effect sizes with credible/confidence intervals excluding zero (median reported b = 0.120). For the second research question, this was the case for 65% of the teams (median reported b = 0.039). While most teams applied (multilevel) linear regression models, there was considerable variability in the choice of items used to construct the independent variables, the dependent variable, and the included covariates.

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• All authors: Hoogeveen, S.; Sarafoglou, A.; Aczel, B.; Aditya Y.; Alayan, A.J.; Allen, P.J.; Altay, S.; Alzahawi, S.; Amir, Y.; Vincent Anthony, F.; Appiah, O.K.; Atkinson, Q.D.; Baiimel, A.; Balkaya-Ince, M.; Balsamo, M.; Banker, S.; Bartoš, F.; Becerra, M.; Beffara, B.; Beitner, J.; Bendixen, T.; Berkessel, J.B.; Berniūnas, R.; Billet, M.I.; Billingsley, J.; Bortolini, T.; Breitsohl, H.; Bret, A.; Brown, F.L.; Brown, J.; Brumbaugh, C.C.; Buczny, J.; Bulbulia, J.; Caballero, S.; Carlucci, L.; Carmichael, C.L.; Cattaneo, M.E.G.V.; Charles, S.J.; Claessens, S.; Panagopoulos, M.C.; Brandelli Costa, A.; Crone, D.L.; Czoschke, S.; Czymara, C.; Damiano D'Urso, E.; Dahlström, O.; Dalla Rosa, A.; Danielsson, H.; De Ron, J.; Vries, Y.A. de; Dean, K.K.; Dik, B.J.; Disabato, D.J.; Doherty, J.K.; Draws, T.; Drouhot, L.; Dujmovic, M.; Dunham, Y.; Ebert, T.; Edelsbrunner, P.A.; Eerland, A.; Elbaek, C.T.; Farahmand, S.; Farahmand, H.; Farias, M.; Feliccia, A.A.; Fischer, K.; Fischer, R.; Fisher-Thompson, D.; Francis, Z.; Frick, S.; Frisch, L.K.; Geraldes, D.; Gerdin, E.; Geven, L.; Ghasemi, O.; Gielens, E.; Gligorić, V.; Hagel, K.; Hajdu, N.; Hamilton, H.R.; Imaduddin Hamzah, I.; Hanel, P.H.; Hawk, C.E.; K. Himawan, K.K.; Holding, B.C.; Homman, L.E.; Ingendahl, M.; Inkilä, H.; Inman, M.L.; Islam, C.G.; Isler, O.; Izydorczyk, D.; Jaeger, B.; Johnson, K.A.; Jong, J.; Karl, J.A.; Kaszubowski, E.; Katz, B.A.; Keefer, L.A.; Kelchtermans, S.; Kelly, J.M.; Klein, R.A.; Kleinberg, B.; Knowles, M.L.; Kołczyńska, M.; Koller, D.; Krasko, J.; Kritzler, S.; Krypotos, A.M.; Kyritsis, T.; Landes, T.L.; Laukenmann, R.; Lavender Forsyth, G.A.; Lazar, A.; Lehman, B.J.; Levy, N.; Lo, R.F.; Lodder, P.; Lorenz, J.; Łowicki, P.; Ly, A.L.; Maassen, E.; Magyar-Russell, G.M.; Maier, M.; Marsh, D.R.; Martinez, N.; Martinie, M.; Martoyo, I.; Mason, S.E.; Lundahl Mauritsen, A.; McAleer, P.I.; McCauley, T.; McCullough, M.; McKay, R.; McMahon, C.M.; McNamara, A.A.; Means, K.K.; Mercier, B.; Mitkidis, P.; Monin, B.; Moon, J.W.; Moreau, D.; Morgan, J.; Murphy, J.; Muscatt, G.; Nägel, C.; Nagy, T.; Nalborczyk, L.; Nilsonne, G.; Noack, P.; Norenzayan, A.; Nuijten, M.B.; Olsson-Collentine, A.; Oviedo, L.; Pavlov, Y.G.; Pawelski, J..O.; Pearson, H.I.; Pedder, H.; Peetz, H.K.; Pinus, M.; Pirutinsky, S.; Polito, V.; Porubanova, M.; Poulin, M.J.; Prenoveau, J.M.; Prince, M.A.; Protzko, J.; Pryor, C.; Purzycki, B.G.; Qiu, L.; Pütter, J.O.; Rabelo, A.; Radell, M.L.; Ramsay, J.E.; Reid, G.; Roberts, A.J.; Root Luna, L.M.; Ross, R.M.; Roszak, P.; Roy, N.; Saarelainen, S.M.K.; Sasaki, J.Y.; Schaumans, C.; Schivinski, B.; Schmitt, M.C.; Schnitker, S.A.; Schnuerch, M.; Schreiner, M.R.; Schüttengruber, V.; Sebben, S.; Segerstrom, S.C.; Seryczyńska, B.; Shjoedt, U.; Simsek, M.; Sleegers, W.W.A.; Smith, E.R.; Sowden, W.J.; Späth, M.; Spörlein, C.; Stedden, W.; Stoevenbelt, A.H.; Stuber, S.; Sulik, J.; Suwartono, C.; Syropoulos, S.; Szaszi, B.; Szecsi, P.; Tappin, B.M.; Tay, L.; Thibault, R.T.; Thompson, B.; Thurn, C.M.; Torralba, J.; Tuthill, S.D.; Ullein, A.M.; Aert, R.C.M. van; Assen, M.A.L.M. van; Cappellen, P. van; Akker, O.R. van den; Cruyssen, I. van der; Noll, J. van der; Dongen, N.N.N. van; Lissa, C.J. van; Mulukom, V. van; Ravenzwaaij, D. van; Zyl, C.J.J. van; Vaughn, L.A.; Većkalov, B.; Verschuere, B.; Vianello, M.; Vilanova F.; Vishkin, A.; Vogel, V.; Vogelsmeier, V.D.E.; Watanabe, S.; White, C.J.M.; Wiebels, K.; Wiechert, S.; Willett, Z.Z.; Witkowiak, M.; Witvliet, C.V.O.; Wiwad, D.; Wuyts, R.; Xygalatas, D.; Yang, X., Yeo, D.J.; Yilmaz, O.; Zarzeczna, N.; Zhao, Y.; Zijlmans, J.; Elk, M. van; Wagenmakers, E.J.
• Date: 2022-07-06
• Journal: Religion, Brain & Behavior
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 237 - 283
• DOI: doi:10.1080/2153599X.2022.2070255