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Does subjective (un)happiness predict religious extremism?

With religious extremism being a destructive force in many parts of the world, the mission to understand and mitigate it is always actual. The current thesis tries to contribute to the knowledge of this phenomenon by investigating it through a very particular lens – its relation to subjective happiness. This is done through finding the answer to the research question “Does subjective (un)happiness predict religious extremism?”, using various quantitative gamma and chi-squared tests of association, as well as data from the World Values Survey, wave 7. Although it is hypothesised, based on previous research, that subjective happiness should have either a positive or negative relation with holding religiously extreme views, none of this is proven correct. Instead, a conclusion entirely new to the field of psycho-emotional well-being and political views emerges, namely that religious extremists tend to evaluate their happiness and sense of well-being just as extremely as they do societal and religious matters. This not only disproves the conclusions drawn by certain previous studies, it also provides a whole new perspective as to how to understand the inner worlds of individuals drawn to the ideas of religious extremism, something crucial for successful mitigation of this harmful phenomenon.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-184892
Date January 2021
CreatorsAndersson, Pontus
PublisherUmeå universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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