Seeing Religious Faith as Essential to Morality Predicts Deconversion Guilt

Although religion is generally declining worldwide, many people maintain their religious convictions. We propose that the moralization of religiosity—the meta-belief that religion is essential to morality – may deter deconversion by increasing deconversion guilt. Five international cross-sectional and experimental studies (N = 10,071) reveal that individuals anticipate more guilt over leaving their faith when they or their cultural groups see religion as essential to moral goodness. Greater personal, national, and religious group moralization of religiosity is associated with higher levels of individual deconversion guilt across countries and world religions (Study 1), and this association remains robust at the individual level when controlling for additional psychological factors (Studies 2a-2c). Experimental findings replicate this effect, showing that imagining living in a society that moralizes religion increases personal deconversion guilt (Study 3). The moralization of religiosity and deconversion guilt may help explain variation in deconversion rates worldwide.