🗑️ 🧵 Longevity research discovery

Anonymous at Mon, 22 Jul 2024 21:49:45 UTC No. 16292758

Religious people live 5-10 years longer than atheists

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/1948550618779820

Abstract
Self-reported religious service attendance has been linked with longevity. However, previous work has
largely relied on self-report data and volunteer samples. Here, mention of a religious affiliation in
obituaries was analyzed as an alternative measure of religiosity. In two samples (N = 505 from Des
Moines, IA, and N = 1,096 from 42 U.S. cities), the religiously affiliated lived 9.45 and 5.64 years
longer, respectively, than the nonreligiously affiliated. Additionally, social integration and volunteerism
partially mediated the religion-longevity relation. In Study 2, exploratory analyses suggested that the
religion-longevity association was moderated by city-level religiosity and city-level personality. In
cities with low levels of trait openness, the nonreligiously affiliated had reduced longevity in highly
religious cities relative to less religious cities, consistent with the religion-as-social-value hypothesis
Conversely, in cities with high levels of openness, the opposite trend was observed, suggesting a
spillover effect of religion. The religiously affiliated were less influenced by these cultural factors.