Value Priorities and Religiosity in Four Western Religions
Author(s)
Schwartz, Shalom H.; Huismans, Sipke
Abstract
Two experiments examined the relationship between religiosity and value priorities among adherents of 4 religions: Judaism, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, and Greek Orthodoxy. Single values combined into 10 distinct value types: power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, universalism, benevolence, tradition, conformity, and security. Exp 1 focused on a total of 1,731 members of the 4 religions in 4 countries where each is the dominant religion: Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, and Israel. Participants rated the importance of each of the 10 value sets as a guiding principle in their lives. Exp 2 compared responses of 849 Protestants and 827 Roman Catholics in West Germany. Results suggest that valuing certainty, self-restraint, and submission to superior external verities inclines people to become more religious in general; valuing openness to change and free self-expression inclines people to become less religious.
