Explaining religiosity: Personality, Post-Critical Belief Scale, or Doctrine?

Religiosity is a complex construct that is associated with personality, with the way of approaching religion, and with doctrines. Research has suggested weak to moderate relations between personality and religiosity. Recently two new models have been proposed, a six-factor personality model, the HEXACO, and a two-dimension model to measure religiosity, the Post-Critical Belief Scale. In three studies the relation of the HEXACO, the PCBS and doctrines in relation to religiosity is studied. In the first at random study within the Dutch population (N= 987; Mage = 48.5), (a) the PCBS facets Orthodoxy (r = .43, p \u3c .01) and Symbolic Belief (r= .51, p \u3c .01) related moderately strong to religiosity compared to the HEXACO-PI of which only Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness, and Openness related weakly to religiosity, (b) the difference between PCBS Symbolic Belief and PCBS Orthodoxy was significant, (c) applying the PCBS to compare denominations, Protestantism related significantly stronger to both Orthodoxy and Symbolic Belief than Roman Catholicism did. In the second study (N = 312) among church-going adults, the Doctrinal Scales were developed consisting of five factors, i.e., Fundamentals, Rituals, Eschatology, Worldview, and Values, with the Cronbach’s alpha’s ranging from .74 to .89. In the third study (Study 3) among young religious adults (N = 109, Mage = 21.8) the Doctrinal Scales (r’s ranging from .54 to .66, p \u3c .01) related significantly stronger to religiosity than the PCBS Orthodoxy (r = .34, p \u3c .01) and PCBS Symbolic Belief (r = .45, p \u3c .01) did