Cultural similarity among coreligionists within and between countries.

Autor:	White CJM; Department of Psychology, York University, M3J 1P3 Toronto, ON, Canada; cjmwhite@yorku.ca., Muthukrishna M; Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, London School of Economics and Political Science, WC2A 2AE London, United Kingdom., Norenzayan A; Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, V6T 1Z4 Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America [Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A] 2021 Sep 14; Vol. 118 (37).
DOI:	10.1073/pnas.2109650118
Abstrakt:	Cultural evolutionary theories suggest that world religions have consolidated beliefs, values, and practices within a superethnic cultural identity. It follows that affiliation with religious traditions would be reliably associated with global variation in cultural traits. To test this hypothesis, we measured cultural distance between religious groups within and between countries, using the Cultural Fixation Index ([Formula: see text]) applied to the World Values Survey (88 countries, n = 243,118). Individuals who shared a religious tradition and level of commitment to religion were more culturally similar, both within and across countries, than those with different affiliations and levels of religiosity, even after excluding overtly religious values. Moreover, distances between denominations within a world religion echoed shared historical descent. Nonreligious individuals across countries also shared cultural values, offering evidence for the cultural evolution of secularization. While nation-states were a stronger predictor of cultural traits than religious traditions, the cultural similarity of coreligionists remained robust, controlling for demographic characteristics, geographic and linguistic distances between groups, and government restriction on religion. Together, results reveal the pervasive cultural signature of religion and support the role of world religions in sustaining superordinate identities that transcend geographical boundaries. Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest.
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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