Religious Residue Effect in Psychology

 

Religious Residue Effect 2023
Geoffrey W Sutton with Bing Images

The religious residue effect describes the finding that features of people's previous religiosity continue to be a part of a their life after they no longer identify as religious. 

These residual effects may be evident in beliefs and attitudes, bonding practices (e.g., baptisms, ceremonies), moral behavior, and interactions with religious people maintaining a sense of belonging. See Van Tongeren et al. (2021).

Van Tongeren and DeWall draw upon the work of Saroglou (e.g., Saroglou et al., 2020), who present the Big Four of religion, which refer to four components of religion. When people leave religion (deidentification), they continue to reveal their former religious identity.

The Big Four are:

Believing- what people believe about God or gods and the supernatural

Bonding- faith practices that bring people together and create emotional bonds

Behaving- the way people ought to behave-- the moral influence of religion

Belonging- the social dimension of faith that connects people to their community

References

Saroglou, V., Clobert, M., Cohen, A. B., Johnson, K. A., Ladd, K. L., Van Pachterbeke, M., Adamovova, L., Blogowska, J., Brandt, P.-Y., Çukur, C. S., Hwang, K.-K., Miglietta, A., Motti-Stefanidi, F., Munoz-García, A., ˜ Murken, S., Roussiau, N., & Tapia Valladares, J. (2020). Believing, bonding, behaving, and belonging: The cognitive, emotional, moral, and social dimensions of religiousness across cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 51(7–8), 551–575. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 0022022120946488

Van Tongeren, D. R., & DeWall, C. N. (2021). Disbelief, disengagement, discontinuance, and disaffiliation: An integrative framework for the study of religious deidentification. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000434

Van Tongeren, D. R., DeWall, C. N., Chen, Z., Sibley, C. G., & Bulbulia, J. (2021). Religious residue: Cross-Cultural evidence that religious psychology and behavior persist following deidentification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120(2), 484–503. https://doi.org/10.1037/ pspp0000288

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

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