Personality predictors of religious orientation among Protestant, Catholic, and non-religious college students

A total of 249 college students completed a questionnaire regarding their Religious Affiliation, Intrinsic/extrinsic Religiosity, Impulsiveness, Venturesomeness, Irrational Beliefs, Neuroticism, Depression, Obsession Proneness, Irrational Beliefs, and Positive and Negative stress. The subsample used included 214 students who indicated they were non-religious, Protestant, or Catholic. Religious affiliation was found to be a moderator of the correlations of religious ego-involvement i.e. intrinsic religious motivation, with various personality variables. Intrinsic religiosity was found to be predictive of proneness to obsessive-compulsive cognitions/behaviors among Catholics, but not among non-religious and Protestant subjects. These results were discussed in terms of ego-involvement with the particular social norms espoused by different religious affiliations.