Can Religiosity Alleviate the Fear Caused by the Coronavirus? An Analysis from the Netherlands

Abstract

The Corona crisis hit Europe with great force and power, causing deaths, distress and anxiety on the old continent. The goal of this paper was to analyze if religiosity - the level of religious commitment could alleviate the negative psychological outcomes of this crisis. The method used was to analyze data from a large longitudinal panel in the Netherlands that provides highly detailed information about respondents. Analysis showed that individuals with higher levels of religiosity had higher fear and distress levels and lower happiness levels compared to respondents with lower religiosity levels. So it appears that religion could do more harm that good regarding psychological wellbeing but that could be just one side of the coin.

Keywords

• religiosity
• coronavirus
• happiness
• fear
• distress