Research Details

Abstract

Two studies utilized firsthand accounts from survivors of two major natural disastersHurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Chilean earthquake in 2010to investigate (1) how people make sense of their disaster experiences and (2) who understands these events in religious terms. We found that describing the disasters as an act of God was among the most common explanations. Moreover, the degree to which survivors encountered extreme hardshipunpredictable, disruptive, and uncontrollable experiencespredicted explanations of the events as an act of God. These findings held even after controlling for demographic factors (educational attainment and race/ethnicity) known to be associated with religiosity. Notably, objective experiences (e.g., seeing dead bodies) were better predictors of religious meaning-making than relatively subjective psychological reactions to those experiences (e.g., fear). These studies extend the literature by examining how experiences of hardship in real-world contexts underlie religious meaning-making and suggest that religiosity emerges, in part, from variation in individual experience.

Type

Article

Author(s)

Nicole Stephens, Stephanie Fryberg, Hazel Rose Markus, MarYam Hamedani

Date Published

2013

Citations

Stephens, Nicole, Stephanie Fryberg, Hazel Rose Markus, and MarYam Hamedani. 2013. Who explains Hurricane Katrina and the Chilean earthquake as an act of God? The experience of extreme hardship predicts religious meaning-making. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.(4): 607-619.