Religion as a source of variation in the experience of positive and negative emotions

Abstract

In a series of three studies, we examined the ways in which religion informs the individual experience and valuation of emotions. In Study 1, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish participants (N = 7231) in 49 nations reported the frequency with which they experienced nine discrete emotions. Results indicate group level differences in the frequency with which different emotions are experienced. Study 2 examined whether the patterns of emotional experiences found in Study 1 replicated in the valuation of those emotions by the adherents of those different religious traditions. Study 3 experimentally manipulated the salience of religious identity to examine the effect of religion on the current experience of emotions. Across the studies, findings provide evidence that religion (e.g., Christianity, Buddhism, etc) is related to the experience of, and beliefs about, emotional states. Implications for the study of happiness and positive psychology are discussed in light of the findings.

Keywords:

• religion
• happiness
• culture and emotion
• religious diversity

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Don Choi, Ying-Yi Hong, and C.Y. Chiu for their comments on earlier versions of this manuscript, as well as Blake Kurschner for his general administrative help. We would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments, and suggestion for future studies and alternative explanations. Preparation of this manuscript was supported in part by The College of New Jersey's Support of Scholarly Activity awarded to Chu Kim-Prieto. We would also like to thank the following researchers for their help in the data collection: John Brebner and Michael Davies (Australia), Hermann Brandstaetter (Austria), Hamida Akhtar Begum (Bangladesh), Iven Van Mechelen (Belgium), Marilia Dela Coleta and Jose Augusto Dela Coleta (Brazil), Krassimira Baytchinska (Bulgaria), Didier Acier (Canada), Therese Tchombe (Cameroon), Ramon Florenzano and Juan Toro (Chile), Xue Zheng and Yan Li (China), Ruben Ardila and Rebeca Puche (Columbia), Vlado Sakic (Croatia), Demetrios Natsopoulos and George Spanoudis (Cyprus), Azia Daoud (Egypt), George Nizharade (Georgia), Klaus Boehnke (Germany), Adote Anum (Ghana), Loukas Ananikas and Diomedes Markoulis (Greece), J.P. Leung and Harry Hui (Hong Kong), Istavan Czigler and George Hunyady (Hungary), Baban Misra and Biranchi Puhan (India), Supra Winbarti and Ratna Wulan (Indonesia), Zahra Habibi and Mahmoud Mansour (Iran), Elena Antonelli and Vanda Zammuner (Italy), Hitomi Ozaki (Japan), Hoon Koo Lee (South Korea), Ramadan A. Ahmed (Kuwait), Nor Ba'yah Abdul Kadir (Malaysia), Marisol Barredes Corral and Susan Pick de Weiss (Mexico), Murari Prasad Regmi (Nepal), A.A. Olowu and Olabasi Olashinde (Nigeria), Dominik Guess (the Philippines), Dagmara Musial, Michal Grygielski, Aleksandra Jasielska and Bogdan Wojciszke (Poland), Paulo Jorge Santos and Manuel Viegas Abreu (Portugal), Madezhda Lebedeva (Russia), Kau Ah Keng (Singapore), Gabriel Bianchi (Slovakia), Sesa Cecic Erpic and Maja Zupancic (Slovenia), Valerie Moller (South Africa), Maria Ros and Jose Valencia (Spain), Alexander Grob (Switzerland), Saovakon Sudsawasd (Thailand), Ruut Veenhoven (the Netherlands), Sami Guven (Turkey), Stephen Kiirya Kisembe (Uganda), Maria Orantes (Venezuela), Elias Mpofu (Zimbabwe).