The relationships of family income and caste-status with religiousness: Mediation role of intolerance of uncertainty

PLoS One. 2022 Aug 26;17(8):e0273174. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273174. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

The relationship between lower socioeconomic status (SES) and religiousness is well known; however, its (psychological mediation) mechanism is not clear. In the present study, we studied the mediation role of intolerance of uncertainty (IU; a personality measure of self-uncertainty) in the effect of SES on religiousness and its dimensions (i.e., believing, bonding, behaving, and belonging), in two different samples (students sample, N = 868, and community sample, N = 250), after controlling the effects of factors like age, sex, handedness, and self-reported risk-taking. The results showed that IU mediated the effects of lower family income and lower caste status (in students' sample only) on religiousness and its dimensions; higher caste status had a direct effect on religiousness (and its dimensions), and; among the sub-factors of IU, only prospective IU affected religiousness. Thus, along with showing that IU is a mediator of the effects of lower family income and lower caste status on religiousness, the present study supports the contention that religiousness is a latent variable that varied factors can independently initiate. Moreover, the present study suggests a nuanced model of the relationship between the hierarchical caste system and religiousness.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Income
  • Prospective Studies
  • Social Class*
  • Students*
  • Uncertainty

Grants and funding

This article was supported by the Open Access Publishing Fund of the University of Vienna.