Cultural similarity among coreligionists within and between countries: There are a pervasive cultural signature of religion & a role of world religions in sustaining superordinate identities that transcend geographical boundaries

Cultural similarity among coreligionists within and between countries. Cindel J. M. White, Michael Muthukrishna, and Ara Norenzayan. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 14, 2021 118 (37) e2109650118; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2109650118

Significance: Do people who affiliate with the same religious tradition share cultural traits even if they live in different countries? We found unique patterns of cultural traits across religious groups and found that members of world religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism) show cultural similarity among coreligionists living in different countries. People who share a particular religious tradition and level of commitment to religion were more culturally similar, both within and across countries, than those that do not, even after excluding overtly religious values. Despite their heterogeneity, religious denominations reflect superordinate cultural identities, and shared traits persist across geographic and political boundaries. These findings inform cultural evolutionary theories about the place of religion and secularity in the world’s cultural diversity.

Abstract: 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 (CFST) 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.

Keywords: religionculturecultural evolution