Positive emotions as leading to religion and spirituality

A great deal of research has shown that a variety of negative events and emotions can increase religion and spirituality. We argue that positive events and emotions (that imply some self-transcendence) can increase religion and spirituality. In two experiments, participants (N  = 91 and N  = 87) were exposed to a neutral video or one of three videos eliciting positive emotions: humor, appreciation of nature, and wonder at childbirth. Religiousness was to some extent affected by the positive emotions elicited (Study 1), and spirituality was higher among participants who were exposed to the videos eliciting self-transcendent emotions (appreciation of nature and wonder at childbirth) but not among those exposed to humor (Study 2). Both religiousness and spirituality may fit with the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, but the correspondence seems to be clearer for spirituality, a reality marked by universalism and openness to experience.

[1]  Ara Norenzayan,et al.  Belief in Supernatural Agents in the Face of Death , 2006, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[2]  Oliver P. John,et al.  Positive emotion dispositions differentially associated with Big Five personality and attachment style , 2006 .

[3]  J. Belzen.  PERSPECTIVE: "In Defense of the Object: On Trends and Directions in Psychology of Religion" , 2005 .

[4]  B. Fredrickson.  What Good Are Positive Emotions? , 1998, Review of general psychology : journal of Division 1, of the American Psychological Association.

[5]  J. Bittl,et al.  The future of an illusion. , 2006, Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

[6]  Rod A. Martin,et al.  CHAPTER 5 – The Social Psychology of Humor , 2007 .

[7]  Vassilis Saroglou,et al.  Values and religiosity: A meta-analysis of studies using Schwartz's model , 2004 .

[8]  L. Kirkpatrick.  Attachment, Evolution, and the Psychology of Religion , 2004 .

[9]  강경아,et al.  Spirituality , 2001, Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

[10]  Peter C. Hill,et al.  The psychology of religion : an empirical approach , 1986 .

[11]  Lawrence S. Meyers,et al.  Greed, Death, and Values: From Terror Management to Transcendence Management Theory , 2004, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[12]  Vassilis Saroglou,et al.  Prosocial Behavior and Religion: New Evidence Based on Projective Measures and Peer Ratings , 2005 .

[13]  Vassilis Saroglou,et al.  Religion and the five factors of personality: a meta-analytic review , 2002 .

[14]  Sophia F. Dziegielewski,et al.  Humor , 2003 .

[15]  C. R. Snyder,et al.  Handbook of positive psychology , 2002 .

[16]  W. N. Dember,et al.  Mood and global-local visual processing , 1996, Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.

[17]  J. G. Hibben.  The Varieties of Religious Experience, A Study in Human Nature. , 1903 .

[18]  A. Isen,et al.  Group Representations and Intergroup Bias: Positive Affect, Similarity, and Group Size , 1995 .

[19]  K. Pargament,et al.  Spirituality: Discovering and conserving the sacred. , 2002 .

[20]  Christian E. Waugh,et al.  Nice to know you: Positive emotions, self–other overlap, and complex understanding in the formation of a new relationship , 2006, The journal of positive psychology.

[21]  Robert C. Fuller,et al.  Wonder: From Emotion to Spirituality , 2006 .

[22]  B. Fredrickson,et al.  “We All Look the Same to Me” , 2005, Psychological science.

[23]  B. Fredrickson,et al.  Positive affect and the complex dynamics of human flourishing. , 2005, The American psychologist.

[24]  J. Belzen.  'In defense of the object: spirituality, culture and the psychology of religion' , 2005 .

[25]  Vassilis Saroglou,et al.  Joining and leaving a new religious movement: A study of ex-members’ mental health , 2008 .

[26]  P. Fischer,et al.  Terror management and religion: evidence that intrinsic religiousness mitigates worldview defense following mortality salience. , 2006, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[27]  W. S. Rholes,et al.  Religious Fundamentalism and Terror Management , 2008 .

[28]  B. Fredrickson.  The role of positive emotions in positive psychology. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. , 2001, The American psychologist.

[29]  B. Fredrickson.  How does religion benefit health and well-being? Are positive emotions active ingredients? , 2002 .

[30]  Vassilis Saroglou,et al.  Individual Differences in Religion and Spirituality: An Issue of Personality Traits and/or Values , 2008 .

[31]  Sara C. Charles,et al.  Handbook of Religion and Health , 2001 .

[32]  Joshua A. Hicks,et al.  Positive affect and the experience of meaning in life. , 2006, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[33]  R. Wyer,et al.  A theory of humor elicitation. , 1992, Psychological review.

[34]  A. Isen,et al.  Positive affect, cognitive processes, and social behavior. , 1987 .

[35]  W. S. Rholes,et al.  Successfully challenging fundamentalist beliefs results in increased death awareness , 2007 .

[36]  C. Berry.  Religious traditions as contexts of historical creativity: patterns of scientific and artistic achievement and their stability , 1999 .

[37]  Robert A Emmons.  Emotion and Religion. , 2005 .

[38]  D. Hay.  The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach (3rd edn.), by Bernard Spilka, Ralph W. Hood Jr., Bruce Hunsberger and Richard Gorsuch. New York: Guilford, 2003. 671pp., hbk. ISBN 9781572309012. , 2009 .

[39]  K. Pargament,et al.  The Psychology of Religion and Coping , 1997 .

[40]  R. Piedmont.  The Role of Personality in Understanding Religious and Spiritual Constructs. , 2005 .

[41]  Dacher Keltner,et al.  The nature of awe: Elicitors, appraisals, and effects on self-concept , 2007 .

[42]  J. Moskowitz,et al.  Positive affect and the other side of coping. , 2000, The American psychologist.

[43]  D. Wimberley.  Socioeconomic Deprivation and Religious Salience: A Cognitive Behavioral Approach , 1984 .

[44]  M. Lindeman,et al.  Religious people and paranormal believers: Alike or different? , 2007 .

[45]  Jonathan Haidt,et al.  Flourishing: Positive psychology and the life well-lived. , 2003 .

[46]  Jonathan Haidt,et al.  Elevation and the positive psychology of morality. , 2003 .

[47]  L. Pessoa,et al.  Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought‐action repertoires , 2005, Cognition & emotion.

[48]  R. Lazarus,et al.  Passion and reason : making sense of our emotions , 1994 .

[49]  Sharon Cruise,et al.  Religion and happiness: Consensus, contradictions, comments and concerns , 2006 .

[50]  D. Keltner,et al.  Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion , 2003, Cognition & emotion.

[51]  P. C. Hill.  Spiritual Transformation: Forming the Habitual Center of Personal Energy , 2002, Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, Volume 13.

[52]  K. Leung,et al.  Social axioms and values: a cross‐cultural examination , 2007 .

[53]  Rod A. Martin,et al.  The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach , 2006 .

[54]  P. Berger.  Redeeming Laughter: The Comic Dimension of Human Experience , 1998 .

[55]  G. Saucier,et al.  Spiritual but not religious? Evidence for two independent dispositions. , 2006, Journal of personality.

[56]  Martin E. P. Seligman,et al.  Character Strengths and Virtues , 2004 .

[57]  Crystal L. Park,et al.  Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality , 2005 .

[58]  J. Maltby,et al.  Positive psychology, religion, and spirituality , 2006 .

[59]  V. Saroglou.  Religion and sense of humor: An a priori incompatibility? Theoretical considerations from a psychological perspective , 2002 .

[60]  R. Allen,et al.  Widowhood and Spirituality: Coping Responses to Bereavement , 2003, Journal of women & aging.

[61]  J. Haidt.  The happiness hypothesis: Finding modern truth in ancient wisdom. , 2006 .

[62]  Vassilis Saroglou,et al.  Cognitive and emotional characteristics of New Religious Movement members: New questions and data on the mental health issue , 2007 .

[63]  Crystal L. Park.  Religion and Meaning. , 2005 .

[64]  R. Piedmont.  Does Spirituality Represent the Sixth Factor of Personality? Spiritual Transcendence and the Five-Factor Model , 1999 .