‘I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.’ –Oscar Wilde
[W]hy are some societies more religious than others? One answer is religious coping: Individuals turn to religion to deal with unbearable and unpredictable life events. To investigate whether coping can explain global differences in religiosity, I combine a global dataset on individual-level religiosity with spatial data on natural disasters. Individuals become more religious if an earthquake recently hit close by. Even though the effect decreases after a while, data on children of immigrants reveal a persistent effect across generations.
acrylic on canvas, in four parts { Keith Haring, Untitled, 1984 }
