More spiritual than religious: Concurrent and longitudinal relations with personality traits, mystical experiences, and other individual characteristics.

People who identify as more spiritual than religious form a notable and growing segment in North America and Europe. Two complementary studies examined how four religious/spiritual self-identity groups—more religious than spiritual, more spiritual than religious, equally religious and spiritual, and neither religious nor spiritual—differ across sociodemographic traits, personality, well-being, generativity, mystical experiences, and religious schemata. Study 1, a cross-sectional analysis of 3,491 German and U.S. adults, and Study 2, a longitudinal analysis of 751 adults assessed about three years later, both found strong evidence that the more spiritual than religious group is particularly associated with mysticism.

Study at a glance

Abstract

People who self-identify as predominantly spiritual constitute a considerable and well-established part of the religious landscape in North America and Europe. Thus, further research is needed to document predictors, correlates, and outcomes associated with self-identifying primarily as a spiritual person. In the following set of studies, we contribute to some of these areas using data from German and United States adults. Study 1 (n = 3,491) used cross-sectional data to compare four religious/spiritual (R/S) self-identity groups-more religious than spiritual (MRTS), more spiritual than religious (MSTR), equally religious and spiritual (ERAS), and neither religious nor spiritual (NRNS)-on sociodemographic characteristics and a range of criterion variables (i.e., Big Five personality traits, psychological well-being, generativity, mystical experiences, religious schemata). In Study 2 (n = 751), we applied the analytic template for outcome-wide longitudinal designs to examine associations of the four R/S self-identifications with a range of subsequent outcomes (assessed approximately 3 years later) that were largely comparable to the criterion variables assessed in Study 1. The cross-sectional and longitudinal findings from these complementary studies provide further evidence of differences between these four categories of R/S self-identification, including strong evidence in both studies of an association between the MSTR self-identity and mysticism.