The Need for Self-Esteem as an Incentive for Religious Belief: A Sociometer and a Terror Management Analysis
Marguerite Nolan Universiteit van Amsterdam
Opdracht: Bachelorthese
Begeleider: Dhr. David L.R. Maij Product: Eindversie
Studentnummer: 6307582 Aantal woorden: 6783 Datum: 27-06-2014
Abstract
The Sociometer Theory (ST; Leary, Tambor, Teardle & Downs, 1995) and the Terror Management Theory (TMT; Solomon, Greenberg, Schimel, Arndt, & Pyszczynski, 2004) are
two dominant theories about self-esteem, which are widely opposed by their respective authors. The ST and TMT respectively propose that self-esteem is an indicator of the quality
of interpersonal relationships and self-esteem buffers against existential threat. Because religiousness has an ability to serve belongingness and meaningfulness, the need for self-esteem could be an incentive for religiosity. In this thesis, it was reviewed how religiosity might serve self-esteem, and whether the theories can explain motivations for religiousness. The analysis implied that both the TMT and ST are suitable frameworks for explaining
Content
1. The Need for Self-Esteem as an Incentive for Religious Belief p. 4
1.1 Religiosity p. 4
1.2 Self-esteem p. 4
1.3 Self-esteem and Worldview p. 5
1.4 Self-esteem and Belongingness p. 6
2. Elaborating two opposing Theories about Self-Esteem p. 8
2.1 The Sociometer Theory about Self-esteem p. 8
2.2 The Terror Management Theory about self-esteem p. 10
2.3 The Theories on Self-esteem compared p. 12
2.3.1 Divergences p. 13
2.3.2. Convergences p. 14
3. Examining Social Exclusion and Existential Threat p. 15
3.1 Social exclusion and religious belief p. 15
3.2 Mortality salience and religious belief p. 21
4. Conclusions and Discussion p. 27
1. The Need for Self-Esteem as an Incentive for Religious Belief
“Existence precedes essence,” - Jean Paul Sartre, 1966, p. 18.
1.1 Religiosity
The emergence of religion has been a topic of interest to interdisciplinary studies (Gaillot & Baumeister, 2007). It is believed to have evolved within humans around 40.000 years ago, alongside other cultural phenomena such as art and science (Leary, 2004). The reason for its emergence remains inconclusive, and has posited many possible functions including: self-enhancement, control, attachment, positive social identity and shield against life stressors (Pyszczynski, Greenberg, Solomon, Arndt, & Schimel, 2004; Gebauer & Maio, 2012). These possible functions are closely related to the human need for self-esteem. Therefore, the need for self-esteem could be related to religious belief. First, the exact definition and possible functions of self-esteem shall be discussed in this introduction. Then, the terms ‘belongingness’ and ‘worldview validation’ shall be introduced, because the extent to which we experience them are thought to be important determinants for our levels of self-esteem, which can be uniquely served by religiosity (Pyszczynski et. al, 2004; Gebauer & Maio, 2012). The central question in this thesis is whether and how the need for self-esteem could function as an incentive for religiosity. This question shall be examined by means of two leading theories about self-esteem, which shall be discussed further in this introduction.
1.2 Self-esteem
Self-esteem is described as the extent to which a person values oneself, and experiences a positive self-regard (Pyszczynski et al., 2004; Leary, Tambor, Teardle & Downs, 1995).
Every person is considered to have a fairly stable, average, personal level of self-esteem. This level is called trait-self-esteem (Leary et al., 1995). Around this stable value, levels can fluctuate due to internal or external events. Thus, self-esteem is not entirely stable, which is why we tend to exert extensive effort to maintain it. Acquiring self-esteem is favourable because it operates as a buffer against negative emotions, and as an enhancement to personal adjustment. Accordingly, low levels of self-esteem are associated with negative, maladaptive outcomes such as depression and anxiety (Baumeister & Leary, 1995).
1.3 Self-esteem and worldview
According to the Terror Management Theory (TMT) (Pyszczynski et. al, 2004), an important threat to our self-esteem is the idea that our life is merely a physical phenomenon that will someday end, and will have no further meaning to it. Therefore, awareness of our own death is considered to be destructive to levels of self-esteem. This predominant theory presumes that humans create culture because it can function as a source for existential meaningfulness, which might make death less of a terrifying idea. Being part of a culture is a way of keeping our self-esteem intact, because it distinguishes us from other species and even from a ‘potato, pineapple, or porcupine’ (Pyszczynski et. al, 2004, p. 436).
By embellishing our existence with cultural phenomena such as norms, values, names, occupations, and other identifications, we try to eliminate the possibility that our lives are insignificant or easily forgotten (Pyszczynski et al., 2004). Hereby the theory does not mean to posit that we are imprisoned by continuous awareness of our will to survive or to somehow become immortal. However, the TMT does repose on the assumption that specific adornments signify the overall will to believe that our existence is of importance. The aforementioned embellishments are aspects of worldview. Worldview is described a set of beliefs, attitudes,
norms and assumptions that encapsulate a total point of view of how society, culture and the rest of our environment is constructed and how it functions.
Religion is known to be a similar, but unique embellishment that gives the ability to construct and validate a worldview (Vail et al., 2010). Not only does religion provide guidance for norms, values and standards one can live up to; religion also provides an opportunity to transcend temporariness (Dechesne et al., 2003). This is because religions commonly promise different versions of afterlives, such as heaven or reincarnation. Thus, religions have a unique potential to maintaining self-esteem, because they provide literal immortality.
1.4 Self-esteem and belongingness
A second predominant theory for the function of self-esteem is the Sociometer Theory (ST) (Leary et al., 1995). According to this theory, the desire to belong is one of human’s most important needs. It serves mental health, and bestows self-esteem (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Social exclusion is associated with bad mental health, including low levels of self-esteem. Humans engage in a broad variety of activities to acquire a sense of belongingness, and thus maintain their self-worth. In this thesis, it shall be discussed how religious engagement might serve as a unique example of such attempts at maintaining belongingness and self-esteem. The ST claims that self-esteem is an indicator of the quality of one’s interpersonal relationships, and thus one’s sense of belongingness. So according to this hypothesis, low levels of self-esteem indicate a shortage of belongingness. The contribution of religiousness to calibrating one’s sociometer has been rarely directly examined in scholarly articles. Therefore, the sociometer is not strongly established as a theory to explain motivations for religious belief. However, the possibility of utilising religion as a means of
serving belongingness (Gebauer & Maio, 2012), suggests that the ST has the potential of being a suitable theoretical framework for explaining religiosity in relation to self-esteem.
Clearly, both theories have different views on the functions and origins of self-esteem. Thus, they have widely opposed each other in literature. In the first chapter of this thesis, these opposing theories about self-esteem shall be elaborated more extensively. Their fundamental differences and criticisms shall be discussed, as well as their theoretically overlapping aspects. In the second paragraph, it shall be examined how religious belief may serve as a unique shield to self-esteem. The empirical evidence of both theories shall be compared, in order to create a more in-depth understanding of religion’s unique contribution to self-esteem.
2. Elaborating Two opposing Theories about Self-esteem
Two prominent theories about the function of self-esteem are widely opposed in literature Leary & Schreindorfer, 1997; Pyszczynski et. al, 2004; Leary, 2004; Gaillot & Baumeister, 2007). These theories are: The Terror Management Theory (TMT) and the Sociometer Theory (ST). As both theories are appreciated and renowned theories in the field, in this chapter, I will review the diverging and converging aspects of both theories, to elaborate the proposed function of self-esteem in the human life.
2.1 The Sociometer Theory about self-esteem
As mentioned in the introduction, the need to form solid interpersonal relationships is a strong drive that guides much of our behaviour. From an evolutionary point of view, this need emerges because social species rely on the support of groups to increase their chances of survival and reproduction (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Consequently, isolation, ostracization, stigmatization and other forms of social exclusion imply a shortcoming of ‘belongingness’. Belongingness is thus defined as the need to be an accepted member of a (dyadic) group (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). The experience of such rejecting phenomena tends to have devastating psychological consequences, including on levels of self-esteem (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Hence, the sociometer states that one’s self-esteem is a gauge for the quality of ones interpersonal relationships, and the feeling of being lonely is somewhat an alarm for a potential reduction in chances of survival (Leary et al., 1995).
In order to have one’s sociometer calibrated, the need to belong must be fulfilled (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Experiencing agreeable, frequent interactions with a small amount of other people fulfils this need (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). The experience of loneliness, on the other hand, shall generate low levels of self-esteem, and shall be alarming
to such a degree that it elicits desires and behaviours that promote and restore an inclusionary status.
Although the ST has not been lengthy tested or examined in relation to religiosity, there are a variety of implications for religion being an effective manner of gauging one’s self-esteem or in other words, one’s sociometer. A God-concept can assist the need to belong in an interesting manner, because interaction with God is of limitless availability and frequency is an important condition to fulfil this need. Because of perceived omniscience (Vail et al., 2010) meaning that God is everywhere at the same time, interaction through prayer for example, can be initiated at any desired moment. For example, religious believers have reported that a relationship with God can provide them warmth and security, makes them feel loved and accepted (Gebauer & Maio, 2012). In other studies, participants increment their religious belief when feeling socially excluded, and decrease their religious belief when feeling included (Gebauer & Maio, 2012). These results shall be elaborated more extensively in the next paragraph, but for now, they illustrate how religious belief can be motivated by the need for self-esteem, because it can potentially help in calibrating a sociometer.
The ST has been criticized because self-esteem in this theory is about belonging, and not about significance of life. Not so many criticisms arise against the ST, however some matters do not concur with people being high in self-esteem that should be low in need of belongingness, as the theory predicts (Leary et al., 1995). For example, people with low self-esteem are also known to exhibit anti-social behaviours that do not promote belongingness at all (Pyszczynski et al., 2004).
2.2 The Terror Management Theory about Self-esteem
The TMT proposes that self-esteem functions as a buffer against existential threat (Pyszczynski et al., 2004). According to the TMT, this existential threat is most present in the human awareness of its own death. Meaningfulness to life is important because it keeps humans motivated to live it. From an evolutionary perspective, a life without meaning could be dangerous to human existence, because that would imply that their efforts for survival and reproduction are trivial. According to TMT, self-esteem may serve as a shelter from the intense fear for death, as it may serve as a confirmation of the idea of the meaningfulness of life.
Out of this need of meaningfulness, humans have embroidered life with culture and religion, which contribute to a worldview that may emphasize the meaningfulness (Pyszczynski et al., 2004). Whenever existentialism threatens to be salient, humans rely on their worldview to cope with the fear of leading a meaningless life that eventually results into death. Validating a religious worldview for instance, would entail incremental belief, or reacting negatively to things that disconfirm a religious belief. The validation of a worldview that provides existential significance, buffers for the stress associated with mortality. This is because a worldview contains standards and values that we can live up to, which makes our existence somewhat significant and thus provides an extent of symbolic immortality. Examples of symbolic immortality are numerous, such as volunteering in a community project, being an excellent sports player, or supporting a political party. These things make us feel like we are part of ‘something bigger’, because for example, they make us feel like we meaningfully contributed to society during our existence, wherefore people will remember our existence (Dechesne et al., 2003).
In contrast to other worldviews, religion offers a sense of literal immortality because many religions preach of an afterlife, such as heaven and reincarnation (Dechesne et al.,
2003). Consistently, existential confrontation elicits positive reactions towards things that validate a worldview, and an increase in religious belief (Norenzayan & Hansen, 2006; Norenzayan, Dar-Nimrod, Hansen & Proulx, 2009). Examples of such findings will be discussed in the next chapter. For now, they form a brief example as to how religiousness can be motivated through protecting one’s self-esteem by means of validating a worldview and providing literal immortality.
Nonetheless, the TMT has been criticized due to a supposed lack of evidence for the claim that self-esteem is in fact a shield against the terror of existential threat. The evidence for the claim that self-esteem is the mediating factor for worldview defence is accused of being implausible (Leary et al., 1995; Leary & Schreindorfer, 1997). If self-esteem is the buffer against threat, it could be posited that people with higher trait self-esteem show less response to MS, and are less afraid of death. However, this hypothesis has not been supported so far, and if anything, there are implications on the contrary. People low in self-esteem commit most suicides, even though the TMT states they are supposedly most afraid of death (Leary et al., 2004).
A second critique is focused at the proposed ability to reduce existential anxiety through validating a worldview. This was called unlikely or oversimplified from an evolutionary perspective, because existential fear promotes survival as it encourages individuals to avoid hazardous situations and to escape certain situations whenever confronted to them (Leary & Schreindorfer, 1997). Reducing certain fears by validating a worldview would seem to be at odds with this commonly accepted perception. The TMT responded to this matter by admitting the utility of fear, but acknowledging the potential paralysing effect of it, which is to be coped with by validating a worldview. Paralysing effects of fear could inhibit an individual of eliciting goal directed behaviour, which in turn endangers chances of
survival. However, no empirical evidence directly supports the claim of the paralysing aspect of this fear (Leary, 2004).
2.3 The Theories on Self-esteem compared
Although both the ST and the TMT were critiqued, both theories remain dominant voices in the literature on self-esteem. However, both theories approach self-esteem from different angles. These differences will be discussed in the following paragraph.
2.3.1 Divergences
The ST is originally a theory about how people respond to social exclusion, whereas the TMT focuses on human response to existential threat (Gaillot & Baumeister, 2007). This is a foremost difference in both theories. The TMT does acknowledge the importance of relationships, and the need for them in human life. However, the TMT views relationships as a source for existential meaningfulness, whereas the ST explains relationships as a source for socially important information (Pyszczynski et al., 2004).
Subsequently, the theories locate self-esteem on different places in their theoretical equations. In the sociometer, SE is formulated as a global alarm, gauge or indicator of interpersonal relationships, whereas in the TMT, self-esteem is formulated more as a temporary consequence of existential fear, or solution for it. Generally, one is confronted with social interactions more frequently than existentialism on a daily basis, However, people do not go around exerting effort all day long to cope with the fear of death, because it is not continuously salient.
As a result of these differences, the TMT has stronger established ties to religiosity in theoretical as well as empirical respect, the ST is not yet examined as a motive for religiosity as much as the TMT. Despite the different theoretical standpoints, both theories result into
foundations wherein self-esteem plays an important role. These foundations, worldview and belongingness respectively have a relation to motivations for religion.
2.3.2. Convergences
Despite differences in both theories, there are many similarities between the theories as well. Death and separation
In the TMT, mortality is considered to be the biggest fear of mankind, because it has the potential of making us feel insignificant. Thus, we supposedly search for mechanisms to defend ourselves from this terrifying meaninglessness. However, making death salient to a person also makes separation from loved ones salient, which could also be considered as a form of social exclusion (Leary, 2004). It is interesting to view how religiousness can help us overcome the threat of being insignificant and lonely after death. It is possible that relationships with other people function as a symbolic form of exceeding mortality (Florian & Mikulincer, 1997). This could imply a convergence in both theories that explain the motive to religiousness.
Interdependence of Worldview and Belongingness
The TMT proposes that worldview is vital for self-esteem, whereas the ST proposes that other people and our connection with them are vital to self-esteem. However, here is a chicken-and-egg problem. Worldview (as it is described in the TMT) cannot possibly exist without connections to other people, and belongingness is also partially dependent on the acceptance of others. This is because acceptance is based on norms and values (Leary et al., 1995), in other words, worldview. In other words, the concepts used in the opposing theories might be mutually dependant, which implies that the theories are more alike in the basis than it would seem at first sight. Although ‘self-esteem’ might be understood in more abstract overarching
terms in the TMT than it is understood in the ST, both understandings might be based on a comparable theoretical foundation.
As these convergences between the theories imply that the theoretical constructs used in the opposing theories are more alike than they might come across at first sight, it is worth exploring whether the differences in scope (as the TMT understands ‘self-esteem’ less in daily terms than ST) imply differences in the relation that may be proposed between religion and self-esteem. This relationship will be the theme of the following chapter.
3. Examining Social Exclusion and Existential Threat
The differences and similarities between the ST and the TMT with respect to the function of self-esteem have been evaluated in the previous chapter. In this chapter, the empirical studies that regard self-esteem as a motive for religious belief shall be discussed. Additionally, the evidence shall be compared to the claims of both theories. First, studies regarding the effects of social exclusion or inclusion on religious belief shall be discussed and compared to the ST. Subsequently, studies regarding the extent of religious belief in response to mortality salience shall be reviewed and compared to the TMT. Finally, the potential unique way in which religion can serve our self-esteem shall be elaborated.
3.1 Social Exclusion and Religious Belief
As previously mentioned, the need to belong is an important determinant of self-esteem, according to the ST. As stated by Baumeister and Leary (1995), the need to belong can be fulfilled by recurrent, affectively pleasant interactions with a small amount of other people are more satisfying than frequent interactions with a broad variety of people. Such interactions must take place with an underlying mutual involvement in each other’s wellbeing. Thus, it is important to view how religion has a potential of fulfilling these needs when feeling socially excluded. Believers often report interactions with God, which resemble interactions with other humans (Laurin, Schumann, & Holmes, 2014). Examples of which are talking, listening and problem solving. Accordingly, Gods tend to be attributed human roles: Lord, our Father, Husband of nuns, etcetera (Laurin et al., 2014). Furthermore, God’s omnipresence entails being unlimitedly available for interaction, by initiating prayer for example. These characteristics are unique to God concepts, because no human friend has the physical possibility of being everywhere you go, and being there whenever you need them. Therefore, God could have the potential of exceeding any other friend on a few important aspects that are
determinant for belongingness. If self-esteem is low due to social exclusion, attempts to restore belongingness are commonly found (Leary et al., 1995). Incrementing religious belief could be such an attempt at restoring self-esteem after exclusion (Gebauer & Maio, 2012).
The effect of loneliness on belief in supernatural agencies was examined by excluding participants socially (Epley, Akalis, Waytz, & Cacioppo, 2008). The participants in this study were believers as well as non-believers. Belongingness was manipulated by giving the participants an individual personality profile that was supposedly based on the preceding personality questionnaire that the participants had completed. In the connected condition, the personality profiles contained positive information, forecasting a future of rewarding and meaningful relationships. In the excluding condition, participants received predictions associated with a lonesome future. After reading their predictions, participants completed questionnaires about the extent to which they believed in supernatural entities, such as the devil, angels, miracles, curses and Gods. Results showed that participants who lacked belongingness, reported higher beliefs in supernatural agents than participants who were socially included. This effect was the strongest for believers but was, notably, also found amongst non-believers. The similar directions in belief in supernatural powers could imply a utilization of religiousness as means of restoring belongingness.
These results could imply belief in supernatural powers is incremented when social exclusion is faced. Furthermore, this does not seem to be limited to believers – although social exclusion cannot convert atheists to religious believers. A shortcoming in this study is that the manipulation could accidentally manipulate meaningfulness as well as belongingness, because life outlooks where forecasted for the participants. An outlook that was meant to make the participant feel socially excluded could also have generated a sense of meaninglessness, as it implied that the future holds unfortunate events. Problematically, in this study no characteristics about the supernatural entities have been specified, and therefore
it shows nothing more than an association between belongingness and religiosity, nor can we know the exact motivation behind this increase. The following study shall be discussed in order to clarify the motivation behind the aforementioned increase.
Participants in a study (Gebauer & Maio, 2012) were tricked into believing there was scientific evidence for the existence of God. While waiting for their partake in the experiment, participants saw a confederate preparing for the experiment by searching for, downloading and printing a recent scholarly article that showed evidence (or no evidence) of Gods existence. Before reading the article, participants completed the Image of God Scale (Benson & Spilka, 1973), to determine whether they view God as rejecting and hating, or accepting and loving, if he exists. After reading the article, participants who viewed God as loving and caring, reported a higher in belief in god, whereas participants who viewed God as rejecting and hating, reported a lower belief in God. A God-concept has the seeming potential of fulfilling the need to belong, provided that He is accepting and loving. When God is not viewed as such, he is unable to fulfil the need to belong and thus, belief shall decline. In this study the need to belong was not manipulated. Thus, a mere association between the agreeableness of a God-concept and the extent of belief has been made. However, it does not clarify whether religiousness will in fact be utilized as means of restoring belongingness in the face of social exclusion.
A second study (Gebauer & Maio, 2012) was aimed at specifying the difference in effect of the manipulation in the preceding study. This was almost identical to the previous study. However this time, the need to belong was manipulated through asking the participants to describe either acquaintances (control condition), or people who they are close to (belongingness satisfied-condition). Results of the previous study were eliminated when belongingness was contended. Higher religiousness was reported amongst participants in the
belongingness satisfied-condition. This implies that social exclusion can motivate religiousness, in attempt to restore belongingness.
Altogether, the previous studies show that religious belief can increase due to an attempt to restore belongingness. However, none of these studies have examined the role of self-esteem in this process, which is important to test with respect to calibrating a sociometer. In the aforementioned studies belongingness has been manipulated in every study, instead of being dispositional. Dispositional social exclusion means in this case that participants are sampled based on their inclusionary status, which results from their societal position. Even though this manipulation is almost inevitable in experimental research, testing for similar findings with a form of dispositional extent of belongingness would make the findings more powerful and generalizable.
Thus, the following study shall be discussed in order to examine the role of self-esteem as an incentive for religiousness under circumstances of dispositional social exclusion (Aydin, Fisher & Frey, 2010). Participants in this study were native Turkish adolescents whose religious orientations were Islamic. Social exclusion was a dispositional factor, as parts of the participants were living in Germany. Turkish people are considered to be an ethnic minority in Germany, and are therefore prone to social exclusion because they face discrimination and experience paucity in social, and economical aspects. The other participants were living in Turkey. The first study revealed that the Turkish adolescents living in Germany indeed felt more socially excluded and showed higher levels of self-reported religiousness, than the other condition. These reports were measured on a Religious Orientation Scale (Maltby, 1999), and a self constructed questionnaire to measure social exclusion (Aydin, Fischer & Frey, 2010).
Another study was conducted with Christian participants (Aydin, Fisher & Frey, 2010). This study was aimed at testing the causal link between social exclusion and
religiousness, as well as taking the mediating factor into account. Because these participants were not considered being any kind of minority, social exclusion was manipulated in this study. Participants in the social inclusion condition wrote an essay about a life event where they felt completely accepted and included, whereas participants in the social exclusion condition were to write about a life event which made them feel severely excluded. In the control condition, participants were ordered to write about what their previous day had been like. Afterwards, participants completed a questionnaire that assessed three dimensions of religiousness: Intrinsic, personal extrinsic, or social-extrinsic dimensions. Items for intrinsic religiousness contained questions about the experience of religious thoughts and feelings when being alone. Personal-extrinsic items entailed questions about manifestations of religious behaviour for personal motives, such as initiating prayer. Social-extrinsic items were about religious behavioural manifestations that are motivated by pursuing connection with fellow-believers, such as going to church. Afterwards, the participants filled in questionnaires about their social self-certainty, self-esteem and meaningfulness in life. Socially excluded participants reported higher intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness, as well as personal extrinsic religiousness, than socially included participants. Social self-certainty was the mediator in this process, which appeared after controlling for meaningfulness and esteem. Social self-certainty is a proxy for belongingness, and is described as the social self-esteem of a person, which specifies a type of self-esteem discussed by the ST (Leary et al., 1995). This implies that participants turned to religion to restore their inclusionary status specifically through their connection with God, and not specifically through interaction with human, fellow believers. Furthermore, it indicated that self-esteem is indeed the mediating factor for this.
In a final study, it was examined whether this turn to religiousness was indeed an effective way to maintain self-esteem. Because aggressive behaviour is considered to be a form of protecting self-esteem when feeling socially excluded, this study explored whether
religious primes reduced the aggression-eliciting effect of social exclusion. When self-esteem is harmed, aggressive behaviours and intentions can increase in order to protect it (Twenge, Baumeister, Tice, & Stucke, 2001). Participants were all of Christian affiliation, and first read a passage about social inclusion, exclusion or an unrelated topic, as operationalization of belongingness. Religion was primed by writing about the personal attitude towards their religion. Aggressive intentions were measured by the “ice water paradigm” (adapted from Pedersen, Gonzales, & Miller, 2000). This entailed letting the participant supposedly determine the suffering of another participant for another unrelated experiment that included the painful act of holding ones hand in ice water for a varying amount of time. Participants who were not primed with their religion, showed a bigger increase in aggressive intentions after social exclusion, than other participants. This could indicate that religiosity can preserve self-esteem effectively when a lack of belongingness is experienced. However, the prime could also have generated a reminder of religious norms and values. This could mean that religion might not condone aggressive behaviour or harmful intentions against others, which prevented the participants from acting in such a manner. A second alternative explanation could be that a religious worldview was primed, which shielded self-esteem, instead of the belongingness shielding self-esteem and thus preventing aggressive behaviours.
In short, the studies indicate that manipulated as well as dispositional social exclusion can increase religiousness especially amongst believers, but also amongst atheists. Shortcomings of these studies lie in manipulations of belongingness. As previously mentioned, the manipulations could have manipulated not only social exclusion, but also things that are related to meaningfulness or worldview validation. However, the study involving participants with dispositional exclusion (Aydin, Fisher, & Frey, 2010), show findings similar to the other studies, which could imply the relationships found in the other studies are indeed plausible. Another shortcoming for studies measuring an incremental
religious belief is that no pre-test is conducted. This would be important in order to exclude the possibility that difference in belief found between conditions is due to inequality of conditions, despite random assignment.
People can reach out to religion for personal comfort, when the ‘real world’ fails to fulfil their need to belong and maintain their self-esteem. These findings – despite their shortcomings – do correspond with the ST, that a lower self-esteem due to social exclusion motivates religious belief because it promotes feelings of social inclusion. Also, this turn to religiosity implies to be an effective way of preserving self-esteem. Individuals lower their belief in God when belongingness and self-esteem are satisfied, or when a God is unable to satisfy belongingness and restore self-esteem. Therefore, the sociometer theory does seem to be a framework in which religiousness can be understood as related to self-esteem.
3.2 Mortality Salience and Religious Belief
As previously discussed, the TMT states that self-esteem shelters us from the intense fear resulting from the consciousness of our own death. Thus, humans have embroidered life with culture and religion, forming our worldview and providing meaningfulness to ease the terror of existentialism (Pyszczynski et al., 2004). In this paragraph, it shall be examined if, and how religion forms an effective worldview to defend in order to preserve self-esteem when confronted with mortality salience (MS).
In order to determine what the effects of MS could be on levels of religious belief, the study by Norenzayan & Hansen (2006) shall be discussed. Participants in the control condition wrote an essay about food they enjoy eating. In the MS condition, participants wrote an essay about what they thought death would be like, whereas participants in the control condition wrote an unrelated topic. As this task is a common way of manipulating MS, for practical purposes, in this thesis it shall be referred to as ‘the essay task’. Afterwards, they were to answer questions about whether they were religious, and if they believed in supernatural entities. All participants in the MS condition showed a bigger increase in belief in supernatural entities, than participants of the control condition, regardless of prior religiousness. However, this effect was found to be the strongest amongst religious participants. This finding concurs with previously discussed findings on an increase in belief in supernatural powers, after being socially excluded (see Epley et al., 2008). However, this study does not clarify whether the increase in religious belief was due to defending a worldview after existential confrontation.
The study by Norenzayan, Dar-Nimrod, Hansen & Proulx (2009) examined whether MS elicits worldview defence by providing an opposing worldview following MS priming. Christian religious as well as non-religious participants were required to read an essay, supposedly written by a Muslim exchange student who expressed opposing worldview related
beliefs. Then, participants were either confronted to MS or to a control manipulation by completing the essay tasks. Afterwards, a questionnaire was completed about the likeability of the student whose essay they had read earlier. Participants in the MS condition reported less favourable evaluations of the essayist than did participants in the control condition. This suggests that people respond negatively to others who disconfirm their worldview after existential threat. However, religious participants were less negative about the essayist than non-religious participants. This could imply that religious participants had some kind of benefit in their buffering system, which non-religious participants lacked. To examine whether this advantage could be religiosity, the following study shall be discussed.
An additional study (Norenzayan & Hansen, 2006) tested whether MS generates an increase in belief in supernatural agents, also if they were not culturally familiar agents. In this study, they also aimed to rule out possible effects of MS that were attributable to negative affect instead of existential awareness. The essay tasks were manipulations of MS and the control condition. Next, participants read a newspaper article that verified potential supernatural powers of Shamans. Shamans in this case, were the culturally alien religious deities. Finally, participants completed questionnaires regarding their perceived efficacy of supernatural powers of Shamans and other deities. Religious participants revealed more belief in culturally alien supernatural agents and in God after MS. However, these results were not found for other participants. This implies that religious believers can rely on more than one religious worldview when confronted with MS. Additionally; these findings mildly contradict the earlier findings of religious tendencies amongst atheist participants. On the other hand, they do concur with findings of negative reactions after MS, to things that contradict worldview (Norenzayan et al., 2009). It could be that the alien supernatural powers were too unknown for the atheist participants, and thus too contradictive of their worldview. Previous studies entailed manipulations of deities that were more culturally familiar to atheist
participants. This familiarity could account for their increase in belief in them after MS or social exclusion.
What is not yet specified, is what role self-esteem partakes in the process of relying on a religious worldview after MS. In a study, participants were randomly assigned to conditions, in which they read an accurate biblical text, a text that was biblically inconsistent and thus opposed their worldview, or a control-text (Friedman & Rholes, 2009). A word stem completion task measured death thoughts of participants. All participants completed the ‘Religious Fundamentalism Scale’ in order to determine whether participants view religious teachings as an undisputed truth. Amongst participants that were high in fundamentalism, death thoughts increased after reading the biblical text that challenged their religious worldview. This confirms that worldviews are important to be validated in order to cope with existential threat, and the importance of validation might be related to the extent of ones religiousness.
However, the literal immortality could mean that effects of existential threat on self-esteem would eliminate by awareness of immortality. Participants in a study were randomly assigned to the MS condition or the control condition (Dechesne et al., 2003). Participants were to answer open-ended questions regarding either death or a neutral topic. Literal immortality and mortality were manipulated by having the participants read articles about empirical explanations for near death experiences, respectively. Half of the participants within each condition read an article providing evidence for near death experiences, and thus for afterlife. The other participants read about particular experiences actually being results of neurological processes, instead of support for an afterlife. Additionally, the participants received positive feedback about their personalities, based on a questionnaire they had filled in. Their reported accuracy of the feedback was a measure of self-esteem striving, because people tend to agree with positive feedback more when they are low in self-esteem.
Participants in the MS condition reported less self-esteem striving after having read evidence for immortality. According to the researchers, this implies that belief in immortality can reduce the effect of MS on self-esteem. Furthermore, it could imply that the religious afterlives make religions appealing means of bestowing self-esteem.
An important shortcoming regarding the manipulations of MS, is that the manipulation fails to exclude potential other factors that could be related to death, such as fear, negative emotions and thoughts of being apart from others. This shortcoming is applicable to most of the aforementioned studies about existential threat, as the manipulation was almost identical in every study. Thus, it is unsure if worldview validation is a response to existentialism exclusively, or also to other things.
The aforementioned studies imply that existential terror could promote belief in supernatural entities as means of worldview validating needs to preserve self-esteem. Firstly, MS generated higher reported levels of religiousness amongst believers as well as atheists. However this incremental belief amongst atheists is limited to supernatural entities that are culturally familiar. Secondly, MS generates negative evaluations of things that do not validate the worldview that an individual upholds. This effect seems to be reduced by religious worldview, which could imply a unique buffering mechanism of religiosity as opposed to other worldviews. The underlying mediator of this effect has shown to be self-esteem. Activating religiousness successfully restores the drop in self-esteem that arises from the fear of leading a meaningless life. These findings concur with the TMT. Similar findings in extent of belief were found after social exclusion as well as MS, regardless of prior belief of the participants.
The studies discussed in this paragraph, imply that the ST as well as the TMT allow for explaining self-esteem motives for religious belief. When suffering from social exclusion,
turning toward religious belief seems an effective manner of restoring a sense of belongingness and self-esteem. Also, religion may function as being an effective worldview to rely on when confronted with experiential awareness, especially when it is culturally familiar. This could be due to the aforementioned converging aspects of both theories regarding death and separation of loved ones and the interdependence of worldview and belongingness. Therefore, both ST and TMT offer frameworks that allow for an understanding of self-esteem as an incentive for religious beliefs.
4. Conclusions and Discussion
In this thesis it was examined whether and how the need for self-esteem could form an incentive for religious belief. By providing meaningfulness and belongingness, religious belief indicates to be an effective way of preserving self-esteem. This has been analysed with the TMT and the ST, which are two renowned theories about the function of self-esteem. Whereas the ST proposes that self-esteem is a gauge for ones inclusionary status, the TMT proposes that self-esteem is a buffering mechanism against existential threat. Thus, social exclusion and meaninglessness of life are considered threats to self-esteem, by the respective theories (Leary et al., 1995; Pyszczynski et. al, 2004)
One’s inclusionary status implies to be an important incentive for religiosity, as it is an important determinant for self-esteem. In response to social exclusion, higher belief in supernatural agents has been found amongst religious as well as atheist participants. This endorsement of religious belief could additionally be explained by the omniscience of a God concept. This could yield unlimited opportunities for interaction, which coincides the condition of frequent interaction for fulfilling the need to belong., Accordingly, religious belief deters when a God-concept is viewed as rejecting and thus unable to fulfil a sense of acceptance, or when the need to belong is satisfied through social inclusion. These effects were also found amongst participants who experienced dispositional social exclusion due to being ethnic minorities. Furthermore, social self-esteem was the mediating role in this process. Thus, self-esteem can form an incentive for religiousness, because religious belief fosters belongingness by offering companionship with a deity that can exceed other friendships due to its supernaturalism.
Furthermore, religion suggests being an effective and unique worldview to uphold in order to cope with the fear of death. Religion seems to moderate negative responses against opposing worldviews after MS. Accordingly, religiousness increases after confrontation with
mortality salience (MS). Particular effects were found amongst religious as well as atheist participants. These effects of MS are not found amongst atheist participants in the case of culturally alien supernatural agents. Worldview defence can possibly account for this finding, because something that is too culturally alien contradicts a worldview and would thus not be a suitable manner for coping with death anxiety. On occasions of being confronted with opposing religious worldviews, death related thoughts have appeared to occur more frequently. Furthermore, religion could be a unique worldview because it commonly entails immortality, which should alleviate the anxiety of mortality. Consequently, participants show less striving for self-esteem after MS, when they are aware of possible immortality.
In short, religious belief could be an effective way of handling death anxiety and meaninglessness, because it is a worldview that commonly yields literal immortality and significance. Besides fulfilling the need to belong, the human need for meaningfulness in life shows to be another way of how self-esteem can be impetus for religious belief. Thus, it can be stated to a certain extent that upholding a religious worldview can be a unique manner of protecting self-esteem from death anxiety.
As previously mentioned, the authors of respective theories have criticized pitfalls of one another’s theory. Pitfalls in both theories such as people being low in self-esteem committing suicide, or exhibiting anti-social behaviour, have not been able to be clarified in this thesis. However, they could be examples of the paralyzing effects of anxiety that the TMT refers to. This is because a possible example of paralyzing effects of death anxiety and loneliness could be pathologically manifested in for example stress and anxiety disorders or depressions (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). It could be posited that religion is utilized as a shield against anxiety as well as loneliness.
An important shortcoming of the studies on which the abovementioned conclusions are based, is that most of the manipulations of mortality salience and social exclusion might have
failed to exclude each other. Reporting death related thoughts, also includes a segregation from significant others. In turn, recalling situations in which one feels excluded can potentially entail worldview, as social acceptance can be based on cultural norms and values. Thus, it should be noted that the theories overlap on these important aspects, which makes it hard to fully distinguish them.
Another point where the TMT and the ST overlap in explaining self-esteem motives for religiosity is affiliation with a deity. Compensating loneliness by reaching out to God also enables to restore self-esteem through calling for a friend who can offer literal immortality. Thus, by reaching out to God, both of the important determinants for self-esteem are satisfied. Despite the positive support for religiosity fostering self-esteem through belongingness and worldview, no definitive answer could be generated regarding the exact distinctiveness of incentives. That religion can foster worldview and belongingness in a possible unique fashion, and thus can form an incentive for religious belief, seems a plausible conclusion. Whether these incentives are entirely distinctive, remains unclear. This is mainly due to the aforementioned limitation that was found in most of the studies. Thus, a suggestion for further research would be, to partially replicate the study of Gaillot and Baumeister (2007) that attempted to distinguish the unique contribution of both to self-esteem. In that study, belongingness and worldview were manipulated in opposing valences, which seems a suitable way of determining which of the two is more compelling. However, the operationalization of worldview and belongingness is prone to the same limitations of the studies in this thesis. Improving the distinctiveness of both, and viewing the effects on self-esteem and religiousness, could attend to finding a more conclusive answer to the matter.
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