Optimism and Fundamentalism

Explanatory style from nine religious groups, representing fundamentalist, moderate, and liberal viewpoints, was investigated by questionnaire and by blind content analysis of their sermons and liturgy. Fundamentalist individuals were significantly more optimistic by questionnaire than those from moderate religions, who were in turn more optimistic than liberals. The liturgy and sermons showed the parallel pattern of optimism. Regression analyses suggested that the greater optimism of fundamentalist individuals may be entirely accounted for by the greater hope and daily influence fundamentalism engenders, along with the greater optimism of the religious services they hear. For nearly a century, religion and its effect on the psychology of its adherents have been the subject of study in the social sciences. Although past studies have examined the behavioral and emotional effects of belonging to a religion, they have not explored variations in the optimistic or pessimistic outlook of individuals stemming from religious differences. Nor have past studies scrutinized how emotional differences vary with the fundamentalist or liberal nature of a religion. We report such an analysis of religious differences in optimism and pessimism. In a seminal study, Emile Durkheim (1897/1951) found that fundamentalist groups, such as Catholics, which have a tight hierarchical structure and demand unquestioning and unconditional acceptance of the faith, had a much lower suicide rate than liberal groups, such as Unitarians, which have a more questioning environment. (See Pescosolido & Georgianna, 1989, for a modern replication.) In 1925, Malinowski suggested (1948) that there was a positive relationship between participation in religious Address correspondence to Sheena Sethi, Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Jordan Hall, Building 420, Stanford, CA 94305. activities and emotional well-being. McClure and Loden (1982) found that more time spent in religious activity correlated with more overall happiness and satisfaction. Further, Ness and Wintrob (1980) demonstrated that the more frequently people participated in fundamentalist religious activities, the less likely they were to report emotional distress. We explored the question of whether differences along the dimension of fundamentalism-liberalism influence the optimism and pessimism of religious adherents. In Study 1, we compared the explanatory style of members of nine religions.