Values and Religiosity

In this chapter, we discuss recent research on values and religiosity from a social psychological perspective. We focus on religion as a social identity (Hogg, Adelman, & Blagg, 2010; Ysseldyk, Matheson, & Anisman, 2010), and emphasize the aspects of religion that relate to group processes, such as norms, traditions, and common practices. We fi rst describe what values are and how they have been conceptualized and studied. We then review research on the direct relationships between values and religiosity, and describe the consistent patterns of correlations found across cultures and religious groups. Next we discuss some of the implications of the relationship of values and religiosity: We show how understanding the value differences between religious and non-religious people offers a theoretical framework for investigating behavioral differences associated with religiosity. Finally, we discuss the implications of the relationships of values and religiosity for the management of multiple identities.