Perspective(s) of R. Inglehart’s Theory of Evolutionary Modernization: Analysis of Change in Religiosity in Ukraine during the War

Abstract

The study analyzes two waves of panel data collected before and during Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. The first wave of the survey was conducted in February 2022 using the European Social Survey questionnaire F2F, and the second wave was conducted using a shortened 47-question questionnaire by telephone in the autumn of the same year. The main focus of the article is on Ronald Inglehart’s theory of evolutionary modernization, which links the changing importance of religion in society to changes in the level of security of the environment. This theory is applied to the study of changes in religiosity in Ukraine during the war. The data analysis showed that the experience of war contributed to a significant increase in self-assessment of religiosity among the panelists (N = 595). The data analysis did not confirm the existence of a linear relationship between the increase in religiosity and the degree of proximity of the respondents’ region of residence (ordinal variable) to the combat zone. When analysing the relationship between place of residence and changes in religiosity by macro-region, no significant differences were found among the panelists from the Eastern macro-region. At the same time, the study found a statistically significant relationship between the growth of religiosity and indicators of in-group solidarity. It was found that the change in the importance of the democratic system is positively correlated with the change in religiosity and is not related to the change in authoritarian values.