Conventional and unconventional forms of religiosity: identifying predictive factors and wellbeing outcomes

Abstract

This study examines sociodemographic and wellbeing factors associated with forms of religiosity involving conventional religious belief (CRB) and daily spiritual experience (DSE), and unconventional paranormal beliefs in lifeforms (UPBL) and paranormal beliefs excluding extraordinary lifeforms (UPBEEL). Self-reported data collected from Australian Facebook users (N=760; Female: 57%) suggest that CRB was significantly higher in Christian participants and lower in those who identify as non-religious and spiritual. However, levels of unconventional religiosity involving UPBL and UPBEEL were significantly higher among Pagans and those who identify as spiritual but not religious, but lower among non-religious participants. Compared to Christian participants, being spiritual and pagan were negatively associated with the level of security. After controlling for relevant sociodemographic characteristics, conventional forms of religiosity involving DSE were positively related to life satisfaction, life security, and trust level. UPBL was also positively associated with wellbeing outcomes but UPBEEL was inversely related to all wellbeing outcomes. Further analysis reveals that religious status moderates the links between conventional and unconventional forms of religiosity, such that paranormal beliefs tended to be higher when CRB and DSE each had a unique interaction with religious status. These results show that forms of religiosity are related to wellbeing differently and suggest the influence of cognitive biases related to religious/spiritual teachings and experiences in enacting the quest for deeper spiritual, paranormal experiences. Study limitations are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Paranormal beliefs
• Conventional religiosity
• religiosity/spirituality
• life satisfaction
• wellbeing
• cognitive biases
• religious affiliation

Notes on contributors

Adam Possamai Ph.D. is Professor in Sociology at Western Sydney University (WSU). He is a Past-President of the International Sociological Association’s Committee 22 on the Sociology of Religion, and Deputy Dean of the School of Social Sciences. His latest books are: The Sociology of Exorcism in Late Modernity (with Giuseppe Giordan, Palgrave McMillan, 2018); The I-zation of Society, Religion, and Neoliberal Post-Secularism (Giordan and Possamai 2018); and the novel L’histoire extraordinaire de Baudelaire (Rivière Blanche, 2017).

Tony Jinks Ph.D. is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Psychology, WSU, Australia. He teaches biological psychology, publishes in the field of parapsychology and paranormal experience, and is a Past-President of the Australian Institute of Parapsychological Research.

Victor Counted Ph.D. is a Fellow of the School of Psychology at WSU, Australia, and Research Associate of the Cambridge Institute for Applied Psychology and Religion, UK. He is an interdisciplinary voice whose main research fuses applied health research, positive psychology, human-environment interactions, adult attachment patterns, and the psychology of religion/spirituality. He is the author of The Psychology of Religion and Place: Emerging Perspectives (Palgrave, 2019) and The Roots of Radicalization: Disrupted Attachment Systems and Displacement (Rowman & Littlefield, forthcoming 2021).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Religious participants are those who identify as Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, non-Christian but of other religions, Indigenous religion adherents, Animists, and those who identify as Spiritual but not Religious. Non-religious participants are those without any religious affiliation who identify themselves as having no spiritual allegiance.

2 Same as the former