Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40307294›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2025

A cross-national analysis of demographic variation in belief in God, gods, or spiritual forces in 22 countries.

Eric Y Aglozo, Kathryn A Johnson, Brendan Case, R Noah Padgett, Byron R Johnson, Tyler J VanderWeele

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Eric Y AglozoPsychology Department, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
Kathryn A JohnsonPsychology Department, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA. Kathryn.a.johnson@asu.edu.
Brendan CaseHuman Flourishing Program, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
R Noah PadgettHuman Flourishing Program, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Byron R Johnson *Department of Economics, Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA.
Tyler J VanderWeele *Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Although prior research documents the importance of belief in God (e.g., for health and well-being), most of the research has focused on Western samples. Much less is known about how belief in one God, multiple gods, or spiritual forces ("Belief in God") differs across cultures and demographic groups within those cultures. Using a diverse and international dataset of over 200,000 individuals from 22 countries, we examined the proportions of Belief in God across key demographics, focusing on country, age, gender, marital status, employment status, religious service attendance, education, and immigration status. Being mindful of interpretative challenges due to varying cultural contexts and the nature of the response items used, we offer insight into country-specific variations in Belief in God and lay a foundation for future investigations into sociocultural influences that might shape-or be shaped by-belief (or non-belief) in God, gods, and spiritual forces.

Indexed as

Cross-Cultural ComparisonReligionSpiritualityAdolescentAdultAgedCultureDemographyFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedYoung AdultBeliefBelief in GodCross-culturalGlobal flourishing study

Identifiers

PMID40307294
PMCPMC12043916

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.