Discovering a blissful island: Religious involvement and happiness in Taiwan

Abstract

While most of the existing research on religious involvement and happiness has been conducted in the Western, predominantly Christian setting, our study attempts to contribute to this literature by focusing on a non-Western, non-Christian society. Using a nationally representative data set from adult residents in Taiwan, we found that: (1) belief in karma was not associated with happiness; (2) belief in a supreme god was negatively linked with happiness, but it appeared to buffer the negative effect of health-related stress on happiness; (3) giving thanks, repenting, or praying every day was related with more happiness; and (4) frequency of religious attendance was unassociated with happiness. Implications of this work and future research directions are discussed. © The Author 2011.