Do you find it plausible that if your atheist friends took up religion, they would become less negative? Perhaps to the degree obtainable by associating with those with a more positive outlook, but I don’t think that’s the predominant cause of the corresponding attitudes.
It sound to me that what you describe as a positive attitude is being high on the Agreeableness Big Five trait, which happens to be the strongest predictor of religiosity of the five:
“Kosek (1999), MacDonald (2000;0, and Taylor and MacDonald (1999) found that measures of Agreebalenes and Conscientiousness were positively associated with measures of religious involvement and intrinsic religious orientation.MacDonald found somewhat differet patterns of correlations acroos the Big Five, depending on the domain of spirituality examined. A factor labeled “Cognitive orientation toward spirituality” was related to Extraversion ad Openness only. A meta-analytic review (Saroglou, 2002) found that religiousness is consistently associated with high Agreeableness and Conscientiousness and low Psychoticism, where it is unrelated to other Big Five Traits.” (Handbook of personality: theory and research).”
Going against this conclusion is the fact that the correlations aren’t high. Agreeableness correlates with religiosity about r = .25. But your description makes it sound like your religious friends are at one pole of this trait and your atheist ones at the other.
No question that in general high Agreeableness is easier to live with, both for oneself and one’s associates. (I say this while I’m low on Agreeableness.) But the Big Five Traits are bipolor: neither pole is an unmitigated benefit. I don’t think it’s unfair to say that low agreeableness is a trait more propitious for pursuing rational conclusions regardless of where they lead, that is, for epistemic rationality. You, however, seem obviously high on Agreeableness, you might say an anomalous atheist. Since similarity leads to liking it isn’t surprising that you prefer the company of the Agreeable Christians. (Even low Agreeables such as I, might prefer Agreeables for personal association—Agreeableness is essentially “likability”—although perhaps not so much that we’d be willing to go to church for the experience. When I was a child hereditary atheist, some friends brought me to a meeting of the “Ethical Culture Society,” which tries to obtain the benefits of religion without supernaturalism. I didn’t like it—the experience was too Agreeable for me.)
You, however, seem obviously high on Agreeableness, you might say an anomalous atheist.
I have noticed this. (My family, all atheists, are a lot less agreeable, and I think they get a lot less out of church services than I do.) I’ve also noticed that I’m conscientious in the extreme, and I like my general agreeability; it makes my head a more pleasant place to live. (Also, most of the time I don’t feel emotions strongly.)
Do you find it plausible that if your atheist friends took up religion, they would become less negative? Perhaps to the degree obtainable by associating with those with a more positive outlook, but I don’t think that’s the predominant cause of the corresponding attitudes.
My personal experience is that attitudes are VERY contagious. I’m very introverted, although I can play extroverted, and I often go around wrapped up in my own thoughts...but I’m STILL strongly affected by the attitude of those around me. I think that if anything, more extroverted people would be influenced more by this.
The problem at my work at the pool, for example, is that nearly EVERYONE has a negative attitude towards the job (i.e. not taking it seriously, coming in hungover on Sunday mornings and never doing maintenance), and a lot of people have negative attitudes towards their lives in general (maybe because it’s a predominantly university-student jobs, and students tend to be poor and face a lot of uncertainty.) Being conscientious, I try very hard, to the point that it’s a running joke with my coworkers. Another milieu, like a cushy government office job where the employees are comfortably settled into their lives and have spouses and kids and fulfilling hobbies they can afford to pursue, might not have the same bias.
Do you find it plausible that if your atheist friends took up religion, they would become less negative? Perhaps to the degree obtainable by associating with those with a more positive outlook, but I don’t think that’s the predominant cause of the corresponding attitudes.
It sound to me that what you describe as a positive attitude is being high on the Agreeableness Big Five trait, which happens to be the strongest predictor of religiosity of the five:
“Kosek (1999), MacDonald (2000;0, and Taylor and MacDonald (1999) found that measures of Agreebalenes and Conscientiousness were positively associated with measures of religious involvement and intrinsic religious orientation.MacDonald found somewhat differet patterns of correlations acroos the Big Five, depending on the domain of spirituality examined. A factor labeled “Cognitive orientation toward spirituality” was related to Extraversion ad Openness only. A meta-analytic review (Saroglou, 2002) found that religiousness is consistently associated with high Agreeableness and Conscientiousness and low Psychoticism, where it is unrelated to other Big Five Traits.” (Handbook of personality: theory and research).”
Going against this conclusion is the fact that the correlations aren’t high. Agreeableness correlates with religiosity about r = .25. But your description makes it sound like your religious friends are at one pole of this trait and your atheist ones at the other.
No question that in general high Agreeableness is easier to live with, both for oneself and one’s associates. (I say this while I’m low on Agreeableness.) But the Big Five Traits are bipolor: neither pole is an unmitigated benefit. I don’t think it’s unfair to say that low agreeableness is a trait more propitious for pursuing rational conclusions regardless of where they lead, that is, for epistemic rationality. You, however, seem obviously high on Agreeableness, you might say an anomalous atheist. Since similarity leads to liking it isn’t surprising that you prefer the company of the Agreeable Christians. (Even low Agreeables such as I, might prefer Agreeables for personal association—Agreeableness is essentially “likability”—although perhaps not so much that we’d be willing to go to church for the experience. When I was a child hereditary atheist, some friends brought me to a meeting of the “Ethical Culture Society,” which tries to obtain the benefits of religion without supernaturalism. I didn’t like it—the experience was too Agreeable for me.)
Thank you, your conclusions seem very plausible.
I have noticed this. (My family, all atheists, are a lot less agreeable, and I think they get a lot less out of church services than I do.) I’ve also noticed that I’m conscientious in the extreme, and I like my general agreeability; it makes my head a more pleasant place to live. (Also, most of the time I don’t feel emotions strongly.)
My personal experience is that attitudes are VERY contagious. I’m very introverted, although I can play extroverted, and I often go around wrapped up in my own thoughts...but I’m STILL strongly affected by the attitude of those around me. I think that if anything, more extroverted people would be influenced more by this.
The problem at my work at the pool, for example, is that nearly EVERYONE has a negative attitude towards the job (i.e. not taking it seriously, coming in hungover on Sunday mornings and never doing maintenance), and a lot of people have negative attitudes towards their lives in general (maybe because it’s a predominantly university-student jobs, and students tend to be poor and face a lot of uncertainty.) Being conscientious, I try very hard, to the point that it’s a running joke with my coworkers. Another milieu, like a cushy government office job where the employees are comfortably settled into their lives and have spouses and kids and fulfilling hobbies they can afford to pursue, might not have the same bias.