Common genetic influences underpin religiosity, community integration, and existential uncertainty

Journal of Research in Personality

Volumn 47, Issue 4, 2013, Pages 398-405

  Lewis, Gary J ^a,b   Bates, Timothy C ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Community; Existential uncertainty; Genetics; Religiosity; Twin study

Indexed keywords

EID: 84876735642     PISSN: 00926566     EISSN: 10957251     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2013.03.009     Document Type: Article

References (48)

1. Altemeyer B., Hunsberger B. Fundamentalism and authoritarianism. Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality 2005, 378-393. Guilford, New York. R.F. Paloutzian, C.L. Park (Eds.).
2. Batson C.D., Schoenrade P., Ventis L.W. Religion and the individual: A social-psychological perspective 1993, Oxford University Press.
3. Birgegard A., Granqvist P. The correspondence between attachment to parents and God: Three experiments using subliminal separation cues. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2004, 30:1122-1135.
4. Boker S., Neale M., Maes H., Wilde M., Spiegel M., Brick T., et al. OpenMx: An open source extended structural equation modeling framework. Psychometrika 2010, 76:306-317. 10.1007/s11336-010-9200-6.
5. Boker, S., Neale, M., Maes, H., Wilde, M., Spiegel, M., Brick, T., et al. (2010b). OpenMx: Multipurpose software for statistical modeling (version R package version 0.3.1-1246). <>. http://openmx.psyc.virginia.edu.
6. Bouchard T.J. Genetic influence on human psychological traits: A survey. Current Directions in Psychological Science 2004, 13:148-151.
7. Bouchard T.J., McGue M., Lykken D., Tellegen A. Intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness: Genetic and environmental influences and personality correlates. Twin Research 1999, 2:88-98.
8. Bradshaw M., Ellison C.G. Do genetic factors influence religious life? Findings from a behavior genetic analysis of twin siblings. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 2008, 47:529-544.
9. Brim O.G., Ryff C.D., Kessler R.C. How healthy are we?: A 25 national study of well-being at midlife 2004, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
10. Bulbulia J. The cognitive and evolutionary psychology of religion. Biology and Philosophy 2004, 19:655-686.
11. Cavendish J.C., Welch M.R., Leege D.C. Social network theory and predictors of religiosity for Black and White Catholics: Evidence of a "Black sacred cosmos". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 1998, 37:397-410.
12. Dennett D.C. Breaking the spell: Religion as a natural phenomenon 2006, Penguin Books, London, England.
13. D'Onofrio B.M., Eaves L.J., Murrelle L., Maes H.H., Spilka B. Understanding biological and social influences on religious affiliation, attitudes, and behaviors: A behavior genetic perspective. Journal of Personality 1999, 67:953-984.
14. Dudley R.L., Dudley M.G. Transmission of religious values from parents to adolescents. Review of Religious Research 1986, 28:3-15.
15. Durkheim E. The elementary forms of the religious life 1915, Free Press, New York.
16. Ebstein R.P., Salomon I., Chew S.H., Zhong S., Knafo A. Genetics of human social behavior. Neuron 2010, 65:831-844.
17. Eid M., Riemann R., Angleitner A., Borkenau P. Sociability and positive emotionality: Genetic and environmental contributions to the covariation between different facets of extraversion. Journal of Personality 2003, 71:319-346.
18. Gebauer J.E., Maio G.R. The need to belong can motivate belief in God. Journal of Personality 2012, 80:465-501.
19. Graham J., Haidt J. Beyond beliefs: Religions bind individuals into moral communities. Personality and Social Psychology Review 2010, 14:140-150.
20. Greenberg J., Pyszczynski T., Solomon S. The causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem: A terror management theory. Public self and private self 1986, 189-212. Springer-Verlag, New York. R.F. Baumeister (Ed.).
21. Hartman W.J. Membership trends: A study of decline and growth in the United Methodist Church 1949-1975 1976, Discipleship Resources, Nashville.
22. Hill P.C., Hood R.W. Measures of religiosity 1999, Religious Education Press, Birmingham, Alabama.
23. Inzlicht M., McGregor I., Hirsh J.B., Nash K. Neural markers of religious conviction. Psychological Science 2009, 20:385-392.
24. Jonas E., Fischer P. Terror management and religion: Evidence that intrinsic religiousness mitigates worldview defense following mortality salience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2006, 91:553-567.
25. Kay A.C., Shepherd S., Blatz C.W., Chua S.N., Galinsky A.D. For God (or) country: The hydraulic relation between government instability and belief in religious sources of control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2010, 99:725-739.
26. Kendler K.S., Liu X., Gardner C.O., McCullough M.E., Larson D., Prescott C.A. Dimensions of religiosity and their relationship to lifetime psychiatric and substance use disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry 2003, 160:496-503.
27. Koenig L.B., McGue M., Krueger R.F., Bouchard T.J. Genetic and environmental influences on religiousness: Findings for retrospective and current religiousness ratings. Journal of Personality 2005, 73:471-488.
28. Lewis G.J., Ritchie S.J., Bates T.C. The relationship between intelligence and multiple domains of religious belief: Evidence from a large adult US sample. Intelligence 2011, 39:468-472.
29. Mackintosh M.A., Gatz M., Wetherell J.L., Pedersen N.L. A twin study of lifetime Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) in older adults: Genetic and environmental influences shared by neuroticism and GAD. Twin Research and Human Genetics 2006, 9:30-37.
30. Martin N.G., Eaves L.J., Heath A.C., Jardine R., Feingold L.M., Eysenck H.J. Transmission of social attitudes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 1986, 83:4364-4368.
31. McCrae R.R., John O.P. An introduction to the five-factor model and its applications. Journal of Personality 1992, 60:175-215.
32. McGue M., Bouchard T.J. Adjustment of twin data for the effects of age and sex. Behavior Genetics 1984, 14:325-343.
33. Munafò M.R., Flint J. Dissecting the genetic architecture of human personality. Trends in Cognitive Science 2011, 15:395-400.
34. Neale M.C. Twins studies: Software and algorithms. Encyclopedia of the human genome 2003, 88-96. Nature Publishing, London. D.N. Cooper, N.J. Hoboken (Eds.).
35. Neale M., Cardon L. Methodology for genetic studies of twins and families 1992, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
36. Norenzayan A., Gervais W.M. The origins of religious disbelief. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2013, 17:20-25.
37. Norenzayan A., Hansen I.G. Belief in supernatural agents in the face of death. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2006, 32:174-187.
38. Norenzayan A., Shariff A.F. The origin and evolution of religious prosociality. Science 2008, 322:58-62.
39. Peterson J.B. Maps of meaning: The architecture of belief 1999, Routledge, New York.
40. Purcell S. Statistical methods in behavioral genetics. Behavioral genetics (Appendix) 2008, Worth Publishers. R. Plomin, J.C. DeFries, G.E. McClearn, P. McGuffin (Eds.).
41. R Development Core Team (2009). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Vienna, Austria. <>. http://www.R-project.org.
42. Rutjens B.T., van der Pligt J., van Harreveld F. Deus or Darwin: Randomness and belief in theories about the origin of life. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2010, 46:1078-1080.
43. Saroglou V. Religiousness as a cultural adaptation of basic traits: A Five-Factor Model perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Review 2010, 14:108-125.
44. Swatos W.H. Encyclopedia of religion and society 1998, Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, CA.
45. Vail K.E., Rothschild Z.K., Weise D., Solomon S., Pyszczynski T., Greenberg J. Terror management theory and religiosity. Personality and Social Psychology Review 2010, 14:84-94.
46. Vance T., Maes H.H., Kendler K.S. Genetic and environmental influences on multiple dimensions of religiosity: A twin study. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 2010, 198:755-761.
47. Waller N.G., Kojetin B.A., Bouchard T.J., Lykken D.T., Tellegen A. Genetic and environmental influences on religious interests, attitudes, and values: A study of twins reared apart and together. Psychological Science 1990, 1:138-142.
48. Zinnbauer B.J., Pargament K.I. Religiousness and spirituality. Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality 2005, 21-42. Guilford, New York. R.F. Paloutzian, C.L. Park (Eds.).