AUTHOR=Zheng Xiaofang , Song Mengjiao , Chen Hao 

TITLE=Could Wealth Make Religiosity Less Needed for Subjective Well-Being? A Dual-Path Effect Hypothesis of Religious Faith Versus Practice

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01636

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01636

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=Religiosity is important for religious people to maintain their subjective well-being (SWB). We propose a dual-path effect hypothesis to model different working mechanisms of religious faith and practice on benefiting people`s SWB: Religious faith can promote SWB mainly via an intrinsic meaning-making path, while religious practice can promote SWB via a combination of intrinsic meaning-making path and extrinsic capital-accumulating path. If the dual-path effect hypothesis stands, then the role of religious practice in influencing SWB should be partly substituted by good economic status, but the role of religious faith should not. Then, only the effect of religious practice would be moderated by wealth. Results showed that people’s individual income and national GDP have significant moderating effects on the relationship between religious practice and SWB, but they had no moderating effect on the association between religious faith and SWB, indicating wealth could be an alternative source of accumulating extrinsic capital between religious practice and SWB. Results provide important support for the dual-path effect hypothesis. The findings uniquely contribute to the literature of religiosity, SWB and their connections with wealth. Implications for future research are also discussed.