Top

Published in:

01-08-2021 | Coronavirus | Original Paper

The Link Between COVID-19, Anxiety, and Religious Beliefs in the United States and the United Kingdom

Author: Francesco Rigoli

Published in: Journal of Religion and Health | Issue 4/2021

Abstract

Research has shown that stress impacts on people’s religious beliefs. However, several aspects of this effect remain poorly understood, for example regarding the role of prior religiosity and stress-induced anxiety. This paper explores these aspects in the context of the recent coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). The latter has impacted dramatically on many people’s well-being; hence it can be considered a highly stressful event. Through online questionnaires administered to UK (n = 140) and USA (n = 140) citizens professing either Christian faith or no religion, this paper examines the impact of the coronavirus crisis upon common people’s religious beliefs. Anxiety about the coronavirus and prior religiosity showed an interaction effect upon change in religious beliefs (t(276) = 2.27, p = .024): for strong believers higher anxiety about coronavirus was associated with increased strengthening of religious beliefs (r = .249), while for non-believers higher anxiety about coronavirus was associated with increased scepticism towards religious beliefs (r = − .157). These observations are consistent with the notion that stress-induced anxiety enhances support for an individual’s existing ideology already embraced before a stressful event occurs. This study sheds light on the psychological and cultural implications of the coronavirus crisis, which represents one of the most serious health emergencies in recent times.

Aldridge, A. (2007). Religion in the contemporary world. Polity.

Atran, S. (2002). In gods we trust: The evolutionary landscape of religion. Oxford University Press.

Barrett, J. L. (2004). Why would anyone believe in God?. United Nations Publications.

Buhr, K., & Dugas, M. J. (2002). The intolerance of uncertainty scale: Psychometric properties of the English version. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 40(8), 931–945. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(01)00092-4CrossRefPubMed

Burchardt, M., Wohlrab-Sahr, M., & Middell, M. (2015). Multiple secularities beyond the West: Religion and modernity in the global age. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.

Carey, L. B., Swift, C., & Burton, M. (2020). COVID-19: Multinational perspectives of providing chaplaincy, pastoral, and spiritual care. Health and Social Care Chaplaincy, 8(2), 133–142. https://doi.org/10.1558/hscc.41973CrossRef

Gill, A., & Lundsgaarde, E. (2004). State welfare spending and religiosity: A cross-national analysis. Rationality and Society, 16(4), 399–436. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043463104046694CrossRef

Graham, S., Furr, S., Flowers, C., & Burke, M. T. (2001). Research and theory religion and spirituality in coping with stress. Counseling and Values, 46(1), 2–13. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-007X.2001.tb00202.xCrossRef

Hart, C. W., & Koenig, H. G. (2020). Religion and health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Religion and Health, 59, 2191–2192. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-01085-6CrossRefPubMed

Hewitt, M. A. (2014). Freud on religion. Routledge.CrossRef

John, O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big-Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In Pervin, L. A., & John, O. P. (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research. Guilford Press.

Jong, J., Halberstadt, J., & Bluemke, M. (2012). Foxhole atheism, revisited: The effects of mortality salience on explicit and implicit religious belief. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(5), 983–989. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2012.03.005CrossRef

Jong, J., Ross, R., Philip, T., Chang, S. H., Simons, N., & Halberstadt, J. (2018). The religious correlates of death anxiety: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 8(1), 4–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2016.1238844CrossRef

Jong, J., Zahl, B. P., & Sharp, C. A. (2017). Indirect and implicit measures of religiosity. In Finke, R., & Bader, C. D. (Eds.), Faithful measures: New methods in the measurement of religion. New York University Press.

Kay, A. C., Gaucher, D., McGregor, I., & Nash, K. (2010). Religious belief as compensatory control. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14(1), 37–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309353750CrossRefPubMed

Kimble, M., & McFadden, S. H. (2002). Aging, spirituality, and religion: A handbook. Fortress Press.

LaBouff, J. P., Rowatt, W. C., Johnson, M. K., Thedford, M., & Tsang, J. A. (2010). Development and initial validation of an implicit measure of religiousness-spirituality. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 49(3), 439–455. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2010.01521.xCrossRef

Norenzayan, A., & Hansen, I. G. (2006). Belief in supernatural agents in the face of death. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32(2), 174–187. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167205280251CrossRefPubMed

Norris, P., & Inglehart, R. (2004). Sacred and secular: Religion and politics worldwide. Cambridge University Press.

Pargament, K. I. (2001). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, practice. Guilford Press.

Pargament, K. I., & Raiya, H. A. (2007). A decade of research on the psychology of religion and coping: Things we assumed and lessons we learned. Psyke & Logos, 28(2), 25–25.

Park, C. L. (2005). Religion as a meaning-making framework in coping with life stress. Journal of Social Issues, 61(4), 707–729. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2005.00428.xCrossRef

Rambo, L. R. (1999). Theories of conversion: Understanding and interpreting religious change. Social Compass, 46(3), 259–271. https://doi.org/10.1177/003776899046003003CrossRef

Rigoli, F. (2020). A computational perspective on faith: Religious reasoning and Bayesian decision. Religion, Brain & Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2020.1812704CrossRef

Sibley, C. G., & Bulbulia, J. (2012). Faith after an earthquake: A longitudinal study of religion and perceived health before and after the 2011 Christchurch New Zealand earthquake. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0049648CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Stone, A. A., Bachrach, C. A., Jobe, J. B., Kurtzman, H. S., & Cain, V. S. (Eds.). (1999). The science of self-report: Implications for research and practice. Psychology Press.

Vail, K. E., III., Arndt, J., & Abdollahi, A. (2012). Exploring the existential function of religion and supernatural agent beliefs among Christians, Muslims, Atheists, and Agnostics. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(10), 1288–1300. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167212449361CrossRefPubMed

Vail, K. E., Rothschild, Z. K., Weise, D. R., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., & Greenberg, J. (2010). A terror management analysis of the psychological functions of religion. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14(1), 84–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309351165CrossRefPubMed

Van de Mortel, T. F. (2008). Faking it: Social desirability response bias in self-report research. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, 25(4), 40.

Wang, C., Horby, P. W., Hayden, F. G., & Gao, G. F. (2020). A novel coronavirus outbreak of global health concern. The Lancet, 395(10223), 470–473. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30185-9CrossRef

Willer, R. (2009). No atheists in foxholes: Motivated reasoning and religious belief. In Jost, J. T., Kay, A. C., & Thorisdottir, H. (Eds.), Social and psychological bases of ideology and system justification, Oxford University Press.

Title: The Link Between COVID-19, Anxiety, and Religious Beliefs in the United States and the United Kingdom
Author: Francesco Rigoli
Publication date: 01-08-2021
Publisher: Springer US
Keywords: Coronavirus
COVID-19
Anxiety
Published in: Journal of Religion and Health / Issue 4/2021
Print ISSN: 0022-4197
Electronic ISSN: 1573-6571
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01296-5

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

Springer Medicine

The Link Between COVID-19, Anxiety, and Religious Beliefs in the United States and the United Kingdom

Abstract

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 4/2021

Dungaw: Re-imagined Religious Expression in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Meaning in Life, Religious Coping, and Loneliness During the Coronavirus Health Crisis in Turkey

Spirituality and Suicidality Among Patients with Schizophrenia: A Cross-sectional Study from Nigeria

Power of Religious Beliefs and Coping with Cancer: Opinions of Iranian Parents

Correction to: Spiritual Support During COVID-19 in England: A Scoping Study of Online Sources

Congregational COVID-19 Conversations: Utilization of Medical-Religious Partnerships During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic