On God and Being American

Research shows that, cross-culturally, religious people tend to be more nationalistic. Within America, I saw this first-hand growing up. Sermons presented at the evangelical Christian church I attended were often a strong mix of bible teaching and patriotism. People who tend to be drawn to religion also tend to be drawn to nationalism.

Recent research suggests that the two systems of belief might be somewhat interchangeable. Research lead by Aaron Kay, Professor of Psychology at the University of Duke, has found that both sets of beliefs function to provide "compensatory control." This refers to the belief that the world is broadly in control (as opposed to the belief the self is in control). Basically, if you think of being lost in a new city, you might feel anxious. It would be less a problem though if someone else with you knew what was going on, where to go, etc.

In one permutation of these studies, people have been randomly assigned to think about ways in which the government is not in control or ways in which the government is in control. Participants in the former condition later report believing God is more in control than participants in the latter condition. In other variations, participants who were randomly assigned to think about how they don't feel in control are more likely to think that God is in control, and that the government is in control. Both sets of beliefs clearly provide people with a source of psychological stability when feeling a lack of control (either external or internal).

Another area of research testing the interchangeability of these beliefs is based on Terror Management Theory. From this perspective, people seek out forms of immortality when thinking about death. These can be symbolic, such as through culture (e.g., nationalism) which outlives the self, or literal, such as with belief in an afterlife. These studies show that thinking about death promotes religious beliefs, even for non-religious people (at least implicitly), and defense of people's culture. The latter is demonstrated, for instance, by participants showing more negativity towards statements that reflect negatively on their country. Thus, both nationalism and religion are defenses people turn to when thinking about death.

Current research has also tested if thinking about death makes people think their culture will persist longer. This work also tested if this tendency applied to both people who believe in an afterlife and those that they do not. They found that thinking about death increased belief that culture would live on, but only for participants who did not believe in life after death. This is consistent with other research showing that people defend their culture against criticism less when thinking about death if they also have read near-death experience accounts that describe people believing they have experienced an afterlife.

These lines of research suggest that, at least when it comes to control and thoughts of mortality, nationalism and religious beliefs are somewhat interchangeable.