In search of the psychological antecedents and consequences of Christian conversion: A three-year prospective study.

Abstract

Religious conversion is often an overwhelming experience. Although self-reports by some converts about life before and after conversion often contain vivid descriptions of the type and extent of changes, few rigorous empirical studies have documented them. This three-year longitudinal prospective study aimed to understand the precursors of conversion, and whether this event would result in psychological changes. A logistic regression on 455 non-Christian Chinese (of whom 46 later became Christian converts) showed that neither baseline personality, personal values, social axioms, psychological symptoms predicted whether one would be converted during the next three years. However, people who thought that there is one and only one true religion were more likely than others to be converted. We further formed a matched sample of 92 individuals who had been Christians throughout the study, and a matched sample of 92 non-believers who remained so throughout the study. Comparison between measures taken at the baseline and end of the study period showed that converted people were transformed not in personality but in symptoms of stress and anxiety, as well as several personal values.

Religion and the Development of Character: Personality Changes Before and After Religious Conversion and Deconversion

“…Whether these effects are limited to New Zealand, or to Christianity, remains unclear. Indeed, many of our findings contradict previous research, both longitudinal findings (Hui et al, 2017, 2018; Huuskes et al, 2013; Wink et al, 2007) and cross-sectional findings using large samples across multiple countries (Ashton & Lee, 2019; Saroglou, 2010). For example, the particular facets of Honesty-Humility (greed-avoidance and modesty) measured here had the weakest associations with religiosity in previous cross-cultural research (Ashton & Lee, 2019).…”

“…Finally, Agreeableness was observed to decrease prior to deconversion. These findings add fresh data to a body of research that has long searched for the impact that religiosity has on character (Hui et al, 2017(Hui et al, , 2018Huuskes et al, 2013;Paloutzian et al, 1999;Wink et al, 2007).…”

“…Yet in contrast to correlational findings, religiosity was not associated with any other Big Five personality changes over time (Huuskes et al, 2013; Wink et al, 2007). Studies that tracked conversion and deconversion similarly observed no change in any of the Big Five personality traits following religious change among Chinese Christians (Hui et al, 2017, 2018).…”

Causal relationship between religiosity and value priorities: Cross-sectional and longitudinal investigations.

“…The oldest participant was aged 63 (M = 25.04, SD = 7.75). This sample overlaps partially with a sample of 455 non-Christians and 92 Christians drawn from the same original data set, for the investigation of religious conversion (Hui et al, 2017).…”

Religion, Spirituality, and Thriving: Transcendent Narrative, Virtue, and Telos

“…We presented several studies that link R/S and virtue development, but findings from these studies do not conclusively provide evidence for directionality of the effects. There are some indicators in the specific findings that religious change may, at times, precede virtue development (Hui et al., ), whereas other studies find that changes in personality temporally preceded changes in religiousness (Heaven & Ciarrochi, ; McCullough, Tsang, & Brion, ). More longitudinal research is needed to explore these complex associations.…”