Andrej Kirbiš and Sergej Flere, University of Maribor, Slovenia Conventional religiosity and new age beliefs as predictors of subjective well-being in Europe http://obc2012.outofthebox.si/

1. C ONVENTIONAL N EW AGE BELIEFS
RELIGIOSITY AND
AS PREDICTORS OF SUBJECTIVE WELL - BEING IN
E UROPE
andrej.kirbis@um.si sergej.flere@um.si http://projects.ff.uni-mb.si/cepyus
PAPER PRESENTED AT THE 2012 OUT OF THE BOX CONFERENCE ON INNOVATIVE
WAYS TO IMPROVE THE CULTURE OF LIVING
MAY 15-17, 2012
MARIBOR, SLOVENIA

2. I NTRODUCTION
 the link between religious involvement and well-being (e.g., self-
rated happiness, life-satisfaction and health)
 majority of studies show positive link (for example, Milot and
Bryant Ludden, 2009; for a review see Koenig, 1998; Paloutzian
and Park, 2005; Green and Elliott, 2010; for a meta-analysis see
Witter et al., 1985); some studies show no link (Snoep, 2008)
 context-dependent effect (Snoep, 2008; Diener et al., 2011;
Eichhorn, 2011)
 past literature limitation – focus of conventional religiosity
 new/alternative forms of “spirituality” (New Age beliefs)
 New Age: mystical idea of one’s inner self, millenarianism, and
eclecticism (for a review, see Flere and Kirbiš, 2009)

3. P RESENT STUDY
 study aim: to investigate the link between measures of
conventional/ theistic religiosity and New Age beliefs and
subjective well-being (SWB) in European context
 2008 wave of European Values Study
 three groups of countries + Slovenia
 1) twenty established EU democracies
 2) nine Eastern and Central European EU member states (ECE9)
 3) six non-EU post-Yugoslav countries
 4) Slovenia

4. M ETHOD
 Dependent variable: subjective bell-being (SWB)
 self-rated happiness
 self-rated satisfaction with life
 self-rated health
 SWB summation scale
 standardized to 100 points
 principal component analysis, C. Alpha scores

5. M ETHOD (2)
 Independent variables: Item 1
 Conventional/theistic religiosity (belief “in personal God”)
 New Age spirituality (belief “in spirit of life force”)
 Atheism (rejecting belief in both)
 Independent variables: Item 2
 Conventional/theistic religiosity
 ”there is only one true religion”
 “there is one true religion, but other contain basic truths”
 New Age spirituality (“there is no one true religion, but all great world
religions contain some basic truths”)

6. R ESULTS (1)
Figure 1: SWB, conventional religiosity and New Age beliefs, 4 groups of
countries, EVS 2008.
SWB CR (personal Gold) NA (spirit or life force)
80
73
70 67 68
62
60
50
50
38 37 40 44
40
34 36
30
23
20
10
0
EU20 ECE9 POST-YU6 SLO
Source: European Values Study (2008).

7. R ESULTS (2)
 impact of supernatural beliefs on SWB
 a series of regression analyses
 sociodemographic variables
 age
 monthly household income
 type of belief explained minimal additional variance in SWB in
the four environments

8. R ESULTS (3)
Table 1: Differences between CR, NA and atheists on SWB measure, 4
groups of countries, EVS 2008.
Conventional New Age Atheists
religiosity
EU20 = = Lowest SWB
ECE9 = = =
POST-YU6 = = Lowest SWB
SLO = = =
Note: Independent variable: Personal God vs. Spirit or life force vs. atheists
 Conclusion: SWB levels context-dependent and belief-dependent?
 New Age beliefs might play a growing role in determining SWB in
Europe

9. Thank you for your attention!
andrej.kirbis@um.si sergej.flere@um.si http://projects.ff.uni-mb.si/cepyus