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    Declines in Religiosity Predict Increases in Violent Crime-but Not Among Countries With Relatively High Average IQ

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    Author
    Clark, CJ; Winegard, BM; Beardslee, J; Baumeister, RF; Shariff, AF
    Date
    2020-01-21
    Source Title
    Psychological Science
    Publisher
    SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
    University of Melbourne Author/s
    Baumeister, Roy
    Affiliation
    Melbourne Graduate School of Education
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Document Type
    Journal Article
    Citations
    Clark, C. J., Winegard, B. M., Beardslee, J., Baumeister, R. F. & Shariff, A. F. (2020). Declines in Religiosity Predict Increases in Violent Crime-but Not Among Countries With Relatively High Average IQ. PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE, 31 (2), pp.170-183. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619897915.
    Access Status
    Access this item via the Open Access location
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/11343/254024
    DOI
    10.1177/0956797619897915
    Open Access URL
    http://dro.dur.ac.uk/30166/2/30166.pdf
    Abstract
    Many scholars have argued that religion reduces violent behavior within human social groups. Here, we tested whether intelligence moderates this relationship. We hypothesized that religion would have greater utility for regulating violent behavior among societies with relatively lower average IQs than among societies with relatively more cognitively gifted citizens. Two studies supported this hypothesis. Study 1, a longitudinal analysis from 1945 to 2010 (with up to 176 countries and 1,046 observations), demonstrated that declines in religiosity were associated with increases in homicide rates-but only in countries with relatively low average IQs. Study 2, a multiverse analysis (171 models) using modern data (97-195 countries) and various controls, consistently confirmed that lower rates of religiosity were more strongly associated with higher homicide rates in countries with lower average IQ. These findings raise questions about how secularization might differentially affect groups of different mean cognitive ability.

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