Big Two Personality and Religiosity Across Cultures

Abstract

How are the Big Two personality dimensions of agency (e.g., competence, uniqueness, ambition) and communion (e.g., warmth, relatedness, morality) related to religiosity? A standard view assumes that communion encourages religiosity, whereas agency is independent of religiosity. Our model is more nuanced, taking into account the Big Two’s motivational base as well as culture: Because communal individuals seek assimilation with their ambient culture, they should be most religious in religious cultures and least religious in nonreligious cultures. Conversely, because agentic individuals seek differentiation from their ambient culture, they should be most religious in nonreligious cultures and least religious in religious cultures. Data from 187,957 individuals across 11 cultures supported this model. Thus, direct relations between the Big Two and religiosity are not culturally universal. Instead, communal individuals are religious conformists, whereas agentic individuals are religious contrarians. In this sense, the patterns are culturally universal.