Understanding the relationship between religiosity and irrational beliefs: The role of thinking styles and disintegration

Religiosity has been associated with various irrational beliefs, yet this relationship has not been examined systematically across diverse manifestations of religiosity. Furthermore, the role of thinking styles and disintegration, known predictors of both constructs, in explaining their association remains unclear. We collected data from a convenience sample of adults (N = 417, 80.1% female, Mage = 38.31). All religiosity aspects correlated moderately to strongly with all irrational beliefs, with religious beliefs exhibiting the strongest associations. Moreover, religious beliefs fit best as an indicator of a higher-order irrational beliefs factor. Thinking styles and disintegration explained approximately 20% of the shared variance between religiosity and irrational beliefs. Our findings support the conceptualization of religious beliefs as a subset of broader irrational beliefs, while suggesting that thinking styles and disintegration only partially explain the mechanism underlying their relationship.