 33. Personality and Religion  709
to them” (Wilson, 2002, p. 54). Spiritualties 
may be contextualized within faith commu -
nities, though they need not be. Religions 
are sets of beliefs, symbols, and practices 
about the reality of superempirical orders 
that make claims to organize and guide 
human life. They include a covenant faith 
community with teachings and narratives 
that enhance the search for the sacred and 
encourage morality. The term religiosity  
refers to motivating commitments to super -
natural beings, powers, and places, as well 
as dispositions to form these beliefs. Such 
supernatural objects are normally viewed 
as “gods.” Although some have argued that 
the movement toward spirituality represents 
a movement away from traditional religion, 
others contend that the increased emphasis 
on spirituality indicates an increased respect 
for the inner, contemplative practices of tra -
ditional religious systems.
Religion and  Spirituality at  Various Levels 
of Personality
Determining how religiousness is related 
to the major dimensions of human person -
ality has been an important starting point 
for making connections between personal -
ity psychology and the scientific study of 
religion. In their comprehensive theories of 
human personality, both McAdams and Pals 
(2006) and McCrae and Costa (2008) posit 
at least three levels of human personality: 
basic traits, midlevel characteristic adapta -
tions (e.g., goals, schemas, defenses), and 
higher-  order identity (e.g., narrative iden -
tity, biography). Moreover, both theories 
acknowledge the importance of considering 
how evolved human nature and culture exert 
influence on these basic components of per -
sonality. The human capacity for religious -
ness and spirituality relates to each of these 
levels of personality, as well as the evolution -
ary and cultural influences on personality.
Religion and  Personality  Traits
Religion and the Five-  Factor Model 
(FFM).  The five-  factor trait model of per -
sonality offers a starting point for explor -
ing the association between religiousness 
and personality functioning. Myriad studies 
have linked Big Five traits to religiousness and spirituality. In a meta-  analysis of 71 
studies, Saroglou (2010; N = 21,715) found 
that agreeableness and conscientiousness 
are positively correlated with religiousness, 
spirituality, and religious fundamentalisms 
across cultures and religions, with small 
effect sizes. Other traits had more context- 
specific relations. Extraversion and open -
ness to experience were positively correlat -
ed with more contemporary and reflective 
forms of spirituality, and openness to expe -
rience was negatively associated with reli -
gious fundamentalism. Likewise, HEXACO 
(Honesty–  Humility, Emotionality, eXtra -
version, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, 
Openness to Experience) personality factors 
and facets have been linked to religiousness. 
In an online sample of nearly 200,000 re -
spondents, religiousness showed positive as -
sociations with conscientiousness and extra -
version, as well as HEXACO agreeableness, 
honesty–  humility, and emotionality, which 
relate to Big Five agreeableness; relations 
between openness and religiousness differed 
by religion (Ashton & Lee, 2019; see also 
Lee, Ashton, Griep, & Edmonds, 2018, for 
relations between HEXACO, religiousness, 
and political attitudes).
A sociocultural motives perspective on 
Big Five personality traits maintains that 
agreeableness and conscientiousness pro -
mote assimilation to cultural norms, where -
as openness promotes divergence; thus, 
agreeableness and conscientiousness should 
be more positively correlated and openness 
more negatively correlated in more reli -
gious sociocultural contexts (Gebauer et al., 
2014). Indeed, cross-  sectional and longitu -
dinal data from over 3 million participants 
sampling across diverse countries, states, 
and urban areas support these hypotheses 
using both self- and informant-  reports (Ash -
ton & Lee, 2019; Gebauer et al., 2014).
Spiritual Transcendence.  In addition 
to linking religiousness to the FFM, some 
maintain that spirituality may represent a 
previously unrecognized sixth major di -
mension of personality (MacDonald, 2000; 
Piedmont, 1999, 2007). Piedmont (1999) 
demonstrated the value of the FFM for 
advancing the scientific study of religion 
through its provision of an empirical refer -
ence point for evaluating the development of 