Abstract
A well-replicated finding in the psychological literature is the negative correlation between religiosity and intelligence. However, several studies also conclude that one form of religiosity, church attendance, is protective against later-life cognitive decline. No effects of religious belief per se on cognitive decline have been found, potentially due to the restricted measures of belief used in previous studies. Here, we examined the associations between religiosity, intelligence, and cognitive change in a cohort of individuals (initial n=550) with high-quality measures of religious belief taken at age 83 and multiple cognitive measures taken in childhood and at four waves between age 79 and 90. We found that religious belief, but not attendance, was negatively related to intelligence. The effect size was smaller than in previous studies of younger participants. Longitudinal analyses showed no effect of either religious belief or attendance on cognitive change either from childhood to old age, or across the ninth decade of life. We discuss differences between our cohort and those in previous studies – including in age and location – that may have led to our non-replication of the association between religious attendance and cognitive decline.
Highlights
Religiosity, measured by how often individuals attend religious ceremonies or by questionnaires assessing religious☆ We thank the cohort participants who contributed to this study, and two anonymous reviewers who provided helpful comments on an earlier draft of the paper
Educational duration was significantly positively related to age 83 religious attendance (r = .12; but not age 79 attendance: r = .03), while socioeconomic status was negatively related to religious wellbeing (r = −.12)
In a sample of adults tested in childhood and across the ninth decade of life, we examined the associations of religiosity – measured with two scales of religious belief and an indicator of attendance at religious ceremonies – with cognitive ability, cognitive change across the lifespan, and cognitive change within later life
Summary
Religiosity, measured by how often individuals attend religious ceremonies or by questionnaires assessing religious☆ We thank the cohort participants who contributed to this study, and two anonymous reviewers who provided helpful comments on an earlier draft of the paper. We thank Martha Pollard and Alison Pattie for Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 data collection. Phenotype collection in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBRSC), the Royal Society, and the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government, with additional support from a Royal Society of Edinburgh/Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland studentship. The work was undertaken in The University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, part of the cross-council Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Initiative (MR/K026992/1). Some studies indicate that, in later life, religiosity is protective against age-related cognitive decline We investigate this apparent paradox in a sample of older individuals who completed detailed measures of religiosity at age 83 years, and for whom cognitive ability data were available from childhood and from multiple tests between ages 79 and 90
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