Religiosity and personality among U.S. adults

There is much evidence that in schoolchildren greater religiosity is associated with lower psychoticism scores and higher Lie scale scores. In order to examine the generalizability of these associations the present study examined the relationship between the Adult Form of the Francis Scale of Attitudes Towards Christianity and the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQR-A) in a sample of 164 U.S. adults. Greater religiosity was associated with lower scores on psychoticism in males, and with lower scores on psychoticism and higher scores on the Lie scale in females. No associations were found with neuroticism or extraversion for either males or females. The data provides further evidence showing that greater religiosity is associated with lower scores on psychoticism in adults, although findings with the other personality dimensions are less consistent. Further research with other adult samples is suggested.