Agnostics’ Well-Being Compared to Believers and Atheists: A Study in Europe’s Religious–Cultural Zones of Christian Heritage

Karim, Moïse;Saroglou, Vassilis
(2025) International Association for Psychology of Religion Conference — Location: Birmingham, United Kingdom (19.August.2025)

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Are agnostics, as open-minded and other-oriented, happier than religionists and atheists, or on the contrary, as neurotic and indecisive, less happy than the other two groups? We analyzed European Values Study 2017 data from 29 countries (N = 30,124) of Christian heritage. We compared agnostics to Christians and atheists and controlled for age, gender, education, and income. In countries of Protestant and Catholic heritage, be they religious or secularized, agnostics were the least happy. Religionists, compared to atheists, were happier (Protestant countries) or equally happy (Catholic countries). In Eastern Orthodox countries, believers were happier than nonbelievers, agnostics and atheists alike—but again, agnostics were the lowest in the less religious countries. In sum, uncertainty makes agnostics, consistently across religious cultures, to be the lowest in well-being, whereas the effect of religious faith on well-being varies across cultures.
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Karim, M., & Saroglou, V. (2025). Agnostics’ Well-Being Compared to Believers and Atheists: A Study in Europe’s Religious–Cultural Zones of Christian Heritage. International Association for Psychology of Religion Conference, Birmingham, United Kingdom. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/256531