What Do Nonreligious Nonbelievers Believe in?: Secular Worldviews Around the World

Valerie van Mulukom; Hugh Turpin; Roosa Haimila; Benjamin Grant Purzycki; Theiss Bendixen; Eva Kundtová Klocová; Dan Řezníček; Thomas J. Coleman; Kenan Sevinç; Everton Maraldi; Uffe Schjoedt; Bastiaan T. Rutjens; Miguel Farias

doi:10.1037/rel0000480

What Do Nonreligious Nonbelievers Believe in? Secular Worldviews Around the World

Valerie van Mulukom
, Hugh Turpin
, Roosa Haimila
, Benjamin Grant Purzycki
, Theiss Bendixen
, Eva Kundtová Klocová
, Dan Řezníček
, Thomas J. Coleman
, Kenan Sevinç
, Everton Maraldi
, Uffe Schjoedt
, Bastiaan T. Rutjens
, Miguel Farias

University of Oxford
University of Helsinki
Aarhus University
Masaryk University
Canakkale Onsekiz Mart Universitesi
Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo
University of Amsterdam

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

37 Citations (Scopus)

680 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The global increase in nonreligious individuals begs for a better understanding of what nonreligious beliefs and worldviews actually entail. Rather than assuming an absence of belief or imposing a predetermined set of beliefs, this research uses an open-ended approach to investigate which secular beliefs and worldviews nonreligious nontheistic individuals in 10 countries around the world might endorse. Approximately, one thousand participants were recruited (N = 996; approximately 100 participants per country) and completed the online survey. A data-driven coding scheme of the open-ended question about the participants’ beliefs and worldviews was created and includes 51 categories in 11 supercategories (agency and control, collaboration and peace, equality and kindness, morality, natural laws and the here and now, nonreligiosity, reflection and acceptance, science and critical thinking, spirituality, truth, and other). The 10 most frequently mentioned categories were science, humanism, critical skepticism, natural laws, equality, kindness and caring, care for the earth, left-wing political causes, atheism, and individualism and freedom. Patterns of beliefs were explored, demonstrating three worldview belief sets: scientific worldviews, humanist worldviews, and caring nature-focused worldviews. This project is a timely data-driven exploration of the content and range of global secular worldviews around the world and matches previous theoreticalwork. Future research may utilize these data and findings to construct more comprehensive surveys to be completed in additional countries

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	143-156
Number of pages	14
Journal	Psychology of Religion and Spirituality
Volume	15
Issue number	1
Early online date	4 Aug 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000480
Publication status	Published - Feb 2023

Bibliographical note

©American Psychological Association, 2022.
Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.

Funding

This research was funded by an Understanding Unbelief RFP2 Early Career Award awarded to Valerie van Mulukom; Benjamin Grant Purzycki and Theiss Bendixen acknowledge support from the Aarhus University Research Foundation; and Roosa Haimila was supported by a research grant from the Finnish Cultural Foundation (Grant: 00180271).

Funders	Funder number
Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond
Suomen Kulttuurirahasto	00180271
Suomen Kulttuurirahasto

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Keywords

Atheism
Cross-cultural
Nonreligion
Secular beliefs
Worldviews
secular

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Psychology
Religious studies
Applied Psychology

Themes

Faith and Peaceful Relations

Access to Document

10.1037/rel0000480

Post-PrintAccepted author manuscript, 1.17 MBLicence: Unspecified
van Mulukom et al_2022 - Secular worldviewsAccepted author manuscript, 1 MB

Cite this

van Mulukom, V., Turpin, H., Haimila, R., Purzycki, B. G., Bendixen, T., Klocová, E. K., Řezníček, D., Coleman, T. J., Sevinç, K., Maraldi, E., Schjoedt, U., Rutjens, B. T., & Farias, M. (2023). What Do Nonreligious Nonbelievers Believe in? Secular Worldviews Around the World. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 15(1), 143-156. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000480

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