Further Details about Why Americans Who are More Religious Are Happier

While Harris Poll #46 reported how happy certain groups of Americans are, Harris Poll #47 looks more into some possible reasons for this happiness, or lack of happiness. Religious people are significantly happier than the non-religious, worry less about their health, and find less frustration with their work. However, religion is not the only place where Americans experience a wide divide in their happiness. Higher education is correlated with higher happiness, older people are happier than younger, and people who rarely feel pressured to act unethically are happier than people who experience such pressures.

Following are some of the findings of a Harris Poll of 2,513 adults surveyed online between March 11 and 18, 2008 by Harris Interactive^®. This survey was conceived and developed by Harris Interactive and was not commissioned by any organization. Harris Interactive worked closely with MBA students at the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University in developing the survey questions and in the analysis of the results.

According to the data, one’s religiousness is closely tied with one’s overall happiness. The results link religiousness to fewer health worries, most notably among the very religious. Almost six in ten people (57%) who are very religious say they rarely worry about [their] health compared to fewer than half of people who are not religious (48%). Interestingly, when comparing those who describe themselves as not religious to people who describe themselves as merely religious the difference is only two percent (48% vs. 50%).

Work is also less frustrating to religious people; a full ten percent fewer religious people agree with the statement "My work is frustrating" than non-religious people (34% vs. 44%). However, religiousness does not appear to be linked to other happiness factors assessed. Financial worry, lack of enjoyable hobbies and pastimes, and a feeling that one's voice is not heard in national politics appear to be equally troubling issues to both religious and non-religious people alike.

Education level is strongly linked to overall happiness and several happiness factors. For example, seven in ten people with a high school education or less consider themselves "optimistic about the future" (70%). In contrast over eight in ten people with college or post-graduate education feel optimistic (82%). The trend continues with regard to health worries and enjoyment of hobbies and pastimes. Fewer high school grads than post-grads say they "rarely worry about [their] health" (44% vs. 56%), and more high school grads than post-grads agree that they "rarely engage in hobbies and pastimes [they] enjoy" (37% vs. 22%).

There is a significant jump in happiness for people who have attended "some college" over those with a high school education or less—as a group, their happiness is eight to ten percent higher in the areas of optimism, health, and enjoyment of hobbies. One notable surprise is that college graduates agree more than those with less education that "[their] work is frustrating" (42% compared to 34% with high school or less education).

Another interesting finding is the correlation between unhappiness and the pressure to act unethically. People who are "often/all the time" pressured to act unethically are more than twice as likely to be frustrated in their work (70% vs. 33%). They also worry more about their health (58% vs. 50%), more rarely engage in enjoyable hobbies and pastimes (51% vs. 30%), and are less happy overall (71% vs. 85%).

The many links identified in this study have several possible explanations, none of which were directly tested by the study, but all of which are interesting to consider. The link between religiousness and work enjoyment is an interesting one, perhaps indicating that a religious orientation helps a person better cope with life and work frustrations. However, another possible explanation is that extreme work frustrations decrease the religiousness of a person. Likewise, "very religious" people might feel less worried about their health because they are actually healthier (perhaps due to their religious practices). But the possibility also exists that their religious perspective helps them feel less worried when they experience poor health. Religion may offer a different lens through which the world can be viewed and understood.

Similarly, higher education might increase one's happiness and optimism by increasing one's personal abilities and confidence. On the other hand, it is also possible that people who are happier, healthier, and more optimistic are more likely to pursue—and achieve more—in higher education. Regarding the surprising finding that work is more frustrating for college grads, one explanation is that such people have higher expectations for accomplishing challenging and meaningful work, only to have those expectations disappointed as they work in highly focused positions that have little directly observable impact.

Regarding ethics, one possibility is that experiencing pressures to act unethically causes work-related frustrations, poor health, and overall unhappiness. However, a more interesting possibility (especially for employers) is that people experience ethical pressure because of other stressors in life. For example, the stress of health and/or financial problems might lead to frustrations at work, less ability to engage in hobbies and pastimes, and greater pressure to act unethically to achieve financial relief.

"Please indicate whether you agree or disagree with the following statements?"

Base: All adults

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100 percent due to rounding

Note: The 5^th and 11^th statements do NOT make up part of the Happiness Index referenced above and in Harris Poll #46

"Please indicate whether you agree or disagree with the following statements?"

Base: All adults

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100 percent due to rounding

Note: The 5^th and 11^th statements do NOT make up part of the Happiness Index referenced above and in Harris Poll #46

"Please indicate whether you agree or disagree with the following statements?"

Base: All adults

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100 percent due to rounding

Note: The 5^th and 11^th statements do NOT make up part of the Happiness Index referenced above and in Harris Poll #46

This Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between March 11 and 18, 2008 among 2,513 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

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