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2024-11-11

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Religious people coped better with Covid-19 pandemic, research suggests (www.cam.ac.uk)

submitted 9 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world

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Two Cambridge-led studies suggest that the psychological distress caused by lockdowns (UK) and experience of infection (US) was reduced among those of faith compared to non-religious people.

People of religious faith may have experienced lower levels of unhappiness and stress than secular people during the UK’s Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, according to a new University of Cambridge study released as a working paper.

The findings follow recently published Cambridge-led research suggesting that worsening mental health after experiencing Covid infection – either personally or in those close to you – was also somewhat ameliorated by religious belief. This study looked at the US population during early 2021.

University of Cambridge economists argue that – taken together – these studies show that religion may act as a bulwark against increased distress and reduced wellbeing during times of crisis, such as a global public health emergency.

“Selection biases make the wellbeing effects of religion difficult to study,” said Prof Shaun Larcom from Cambridge’s Department of Land Economy, and co-author of the latest study. “People may become religious due to family backgrounds, innate traits, or to cope with new or existing struggles.”

“However, the Covid-19 pandemic was an extraordinary event affecting everyone at around the same time, so we could gauge the impact of a negative shock to wellbeing right across society. This provided a unique opportunity to measure whether religion was important for how some people deal with a crisis.”

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[–] Tier1BuildABear@lemmy.world 74 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Did they "cope" with it, or just straight up deny it though?

[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 29 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I'd be curious to see the same study measuring how many of them died vs the regular population. Being calm in the face of danger ceases to be a good thing when it stems from straight-up ignoring the danger until it kills you.

[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 8 points 9 months ago

Yeah if you interview after the fact there's inherent survivorship bias.

Almost like "not wearing helmets decreases nonfatal head injuries" as the upside down finding of steel helmets leading to more head injuries (instead of death) in WWI.

[–] ohlaph@lemmy.world 22 points 9 months ago

I don't know a single religious person who took it seriously. So that's probably why they thought it was fine.

[–] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 43 points 9 months ago

Weird how that works, I would have coped with the pandemic better if the religious people in my area actually took it seriously rather than just stick their heads in the sand and ignore everything around them.

As my old english teacher used to say, "Ignorance is bliss."

[–] Nougat@kbin.social 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Religion is a coping mechanism? Who could have guessed?

[–] overzeetop@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Denial is a coping mechanism. Religion is just the vehicle.

[–] Nougat@kbin.social 3 points 9 months ago

To-MAY-to, to-MAH-to.

[–] Paradachshund@lemmy.today 11 points 9 months ago

None of em did anything to help so I'm not surprised.

[–] xkforce@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

An ideology that told you you were protected by some big brother type being, that your dead relatives would once live again and that the bad people you knew would get theirs eventually would absolutely be comforting. Thats a lot of why religions spread so readily in the past when things were arguably bleak by default. i.e most of your kids died young, diseases, storms, droughts, floods, locust swarms, famine, war, very little of the world would be understood. The only thing people really had to cling to was religion. It gave them (false) explanations for the unexplainable and (false) hope and comfort that they could pull through if only they believed a specific set of things and followed a specific set of rules. It was arguably advantageous during a time when there was really no alternative. But today it is dangerous. Comforting when shit hits the fan but often directly or indirectly the cause of shit hitting the fan in the first place.

[–] Nobody@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Those for whom religion makes “some or a great difference” in their lives experienced around half the increase in unhappiness seen in those for whom religion makes little or no difference

Religious/spiritual beliefs give context to tragedies and instill a greater sense of purpose overall. It's no surprise that someone who truly believes in a spiritual force greater than themselves, that is active in people's lives, is better able to handle the stresses of crises. A sincere belief in a deeper meaning to events and the existence of a higher purpose to life, even though its nature is unknown and possibly unknowable, i.e. faith, gives a person's mind a firm foundation that can help through hard times.