Deus ex machina: The Covid-19 pandemic and young adults' religiosity, temporal values, and time spatialization across cultures

Abstract

Was the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic associated with young adults' religiosity and time-related cultural values? If so, were there also associated changes in peoples' spatio-temporal preferences as predicted by the Temporal Focus Hypothesis? We used a behavioral task and three questionnaires across young participants from eight cultures: Bosniaks, Chinese, Croats, Moroccans, Serbs, Spaniards, Turks, and U.S. Americans. In Study 1, we compared two matched samples, one collected before the pandemic (N = 497) and the other collected during the pandemic (N = 497). In Study 2, we used the entire sample of young participants collected only during the pandemic (N = 893). The results from Study 1 showed that young adults collected during the pandemic (compared to before the pandemic) were less religious (Hypothesis 1), more future-focused in their temporal values (Hypothesis 2), and represented the future in front of them to a greater extent (Hypothesis 3). In Study 2, we observed that the more concerned the participants were by the pandemic, the lower their religiosity (Hypothesis 4), the greater their future focus (Hypothesis 5), and the greater their tendency to represent the future in front (Hypothesis 6). This pattern of results held across cultural groups with varying religiosity levels. Our findings show that during the pandemic, young people's religiosity seemed to decline, and their focus on the future increased. This suggests the possible role of age and generation in coping strategies.