Mechanisms of Secularization: Testing Between the Rationalization and Existential Insecurity Theories

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F25840886%3A_____%2F24%3AN0000015" target="_blank" >RIV/25840886:_____/24:N0000015 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://online.ucpress.edu/collabra/article/10/1/126508/204054/Mechanisms-of-Secularization-Testing-Between-the" target="_blank" >https://online.ucpress.edu/collabra/article/10/1/126508/204054/Mechanisms-of-Secularization-Testing-Between-the</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/collabra.126508" target="_blank" >10.1525/collabra.126508</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Mechanisms of Secularization: Testing Between the Rationalization and Existential Insecurity Theories

Original language description

The study tests two competing explanations of the secularization process related to rationalizing worldviews and decreasing existential insecurity. While the former explanation argues that people are unwilling to join religious groups because of increasing mechanistic understanding of the world that clashes with religious views (and is rather irreversible), the latter argues that it is the decreasing insecurity that causes secularization and that this trend can be reversed with increasing insecurity. In the present study, 811 secular participants from the USA and Poland played a modified version of the Nash demand game, which simulates dilemmas indexing cooperative insecurity. Participants were randomly assigned to either a secure or insecure environment, manipulated by the parameters of the Nash demand game, and we assessed whether they would be willing to join costly normative groups that regulate cooperation in the game. Crucially, participants were randomly assigned either to a secular condition (choosing between a secular normative group and a group with no norms)—our manipulation check—or a religious condition (choosing between a normative group with religious framing and a group without norms)—main test between the two theories. The results showed that participants in the secular condition were more likely to choose the normative group in the insecure compared to the secure environment, but this difference was inconclusive in the religious condition. However, when re-assigning participants from insecure to secure environments and vice versa, we found strong support for the existential insecurity theory. We discuss potential explanations for the discrepancy between stated and actual behavior as well as potential motivations for joining religious normative groups. This submission has been positively recommended by PCI RR.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50101 - Psychology (including human - machine relations)

Project

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Continuities

N - Vyzkumna aktivita podporovana z neverejnych zdroju

Publication year

2024

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Collabra: Psychology

ISSN

—

e-ISSN

2474-7394

Volume of the periodical

10

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

US - UNITED STATES

Number of pages

17

Pages from-to

1-17

UT code for WoS article

001379322900001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85213052815