The Evidence page says what the research found. This page says how we went about
it, what we mean by “verified”, what we threw away, and every source that informed a
conclusion. A page that asks to be trusted on method has to show the method.
What was actually done
Fifteen separate research briefs were run across the literature on faith, practice and
wellbeing — each one on a defined question, each required to report negative and null
findings as prominently as positive ones, and each required to mark every claim as verified at
source or not verified. A separate audit pass then reconciled them against one another, looking
specifically for contradictions, double-counting and claims that had drifted from their sources.
2,659publication identifiers encountered
932of them indexed in PubMed
15research briefs, plus one audit
~35citation errors found and corrected
What that first number is, and is not. Those 2,659 identifiers were
encountered during the work — papers opened and read, papers whose abstracts were
checked, and references cited inside papers that were read.
It is not 2,659 papers we read,
and it is not a bibliography. Roughly ninety sources actually informed a finding, and those are
listed in full further down this page with authors and titles. The complete raw set is published
too, with every identifier as a live link, so the parts that turned out to be noise are visible
alongside the parts that were not:
every source, listed →
What “verified” means here
It means one specific thing: somebody opened the actual publication and read the number off
the page. Not a summary of it, not another website citing it, not a press release from the
university that produced it. Several claims we had expected to use died at exactly this step.
| Tier | What it means | How it may be used |
|---|
| Verified | Read at the publisher, PubMed Central or the author's own copy |
Publishable, with its limits stated |
| Verified in part | Abstract or structured record read; full text unobtainable |
Usable for direction, never for a precise figure |
| Unverified | Could not be reached at source |
Not published in any form |
| Withdrawn | Retracted, fabricated, or fatally compromised |
Never used, and named as an example of why we check |
Rules the research had to follow
- Nulls carry equal weight. Every brief was required to report findings that went against
the expected answer as prominently as those that supported it. Several did, and changed the
course as a result.
- Both comparisons, because they answer different questions. Where a study reports an
effect against both doing nothing and against an active alternative, we give both. The
active-comparison number asks is this specifically better than the alternatives? The
against-nothing number asks is this better than what I am doing now? — which is the
question a reader actually faces. We got this wrong at first and quoted only the smaller figure,
which made several practices look weaker than the evidence says they are.
- Overlapping studies are counted once. Four prominent papers in this literature are the
same survey reported in different places; two famous trials sit inside the reviews we cite.
Listing them separately would manufacture agreement out of a single piece of evidence.
- Publication bias is assumed until tested. Where a corrected estimate exists, we use the
corrected one. In one central case that took the headline figure down to roughly a quarter of its
published size.
- Sample sizes are stated, especially the small ones. Several widely repeated findings in
this field rest on twenty people or fewer. Where that is so, we say the number.
- Funding and authorship are disclosed where a programme's own designer evaluated it.
What we threw away, and why
These are not obscure sources. Each was widely cited, several were things we had planned to
build on, and all of them failed the checks above.
A retracted study. A prominent paper on religion and the rise of complex
societies was retracted in 2021 after it emerged that missing data had been treated as evidence
of absence. It is not cited.
A fraud-tainted trial. A famous study reporting that prayer doubled IVF
success had a co-author later convicted of fraud, a senior author who withdrew his name, and
participants never told they were in a study. It was never retracted and is still cited elsewhere.
Not by us.
A fabricated statistic. One figure circulating in this literature turned
out to have been generated by an AI system and traced to no source at all.
Two invented effect sizes. During the work, automated summarising
produced numbers that did not exist in the papers they claimed to summarise — including an
impossible confidence interval. This is precisely why nothing here was accepted from a summary.
Errors we found in the published literature
Roughly thirty-five citation errors surfaced during the checks. They are worth listing because
they show what happens to a number as it travels:
- A risk ratio quoted throughout the literature as a hazard ratio — different
quantities, routinely swapped.
- Several systematic reviews cited as meta-analyses, which is how a paper with no
pooled effect size acquires one.
- A published pooled effect printed outside its own confidence interval —
arithmetically impossible, and uncorrected.
- A meta-analysis whose abstract reported an effect its own analysis found non-significant.
- A foundational study misdescribed in a later meta-analysis's own introduction.
- A widely used paper cited by the wrong year for decades, so that a naive search finds two
studies where only one exists.
- A famous finding presented as multiple independent replications that proved to be
the same 72 participants reported in two papers.
Why this page exists. Every one of those errors made a finding look
stronger than it was. None of them was deliberate. This is simply what happens when numbers are
passed along rather than checked — and it is the reason we say, plainly, that nothing here
was taken on trust from a secondary source. If you find something we have got wrong, tell us and
we will check it and change it.
Complete references
Every source below informed a finding used in this course or on the Evidence page. Grouped by
the question it speaks to.
Flourishing: what it is, and what moves it
Biggs, J. (1996). Enhancing teaching through constructive alignment. Higher Education, 32(3), 347–364.
Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Scollon, C. N. (2006). Beyond the hedonic treadmill: revising the adaptation theory of well-being. American Psychologist, 61(4), 305–314.
Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Tov, W., et al. (2010). New well-being measures. Social Indicators Research, 97(2), 143–156.
Disabato, D. J., Goodman, F. R., Kashdan, T. B., et al. (2016). Different types of well-being? Psychological Assessment, 28(5), 471–482.
Goodman, F. R., Disabato, D. J., Kashdan, T. B., & Kauffman, S. B. (2018). Measuring well-being: a comparison of subjective well-being and PERMA. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 13(4), 321–332.
Keyes, C. L. M. (2002). The mental health continuum: from languishing to flourishing in life. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 43(2), 207–222.
Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 1069–1081.
VanderWeele, T. J. (2017). On the promotion of human flourishing. PNAS, 114(31), 8148–8156.
VanderWeele, T. J., Case, B. W., Chen, Y., et al. (2025). The Global Flourishing Study: study profile and initial results. Nature Mental Health, 3, 636–653.
Bartels, M. (2015). Genetics of wellbeing and its components. Behavior Genetics, 45(2), 137–156.
Carr, A., Cullen, K., Keeney, C., et al. (2021). Effectiveness of positive psychology interventions. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 16(6), 749–769.
White, C. A., Uttl, B., & Holder, M. D. (2019). Meta-analyses of positive psychology interventions: the effects are much smaller than previously reported. PLoS ONE, 14(5), e0216588.
van Agteren, J., Iasiello, M., Lo, L., et al. (2021). A systematic review and meta-analysis of psychological interventions to improve mental wellbeing. Nature Human Behaviour, 5(5), 631–652.
Wilkie, L., Fisher, Z., Geidel, A., et al. (2026). A systematic review and network meta-analysis of well-being-focused interventions. Nature Human Behaviour.
Clark, A. E., Flèche, S., Layard, R., Powdthavee, N., & Ward, G. (2017). The key determinants of happiness and misery. CEP Discussion Paper 1485.
Killingsworth, M. A., Kahneman, D., & Mellers, B. (2023). Income and emotional well-being: a conflict resolved. PNAS, 120(10).
Lucas, R. E., Clark, A. E., Georgellis, Y., & Diener, E. (2004). Unemployment alters the set point for life satisfaction. Psychological Science, 15(1), 8–13.
Meaning and purpose
Cohen, R., Bavishi, C., & Rozanski, A. (2016). Purpose in life and its relationship to all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events. Psychosomatic Medicine, 78(2), 122–133.
Hill, P. L., & Turiano, N. A. (2014). Purpose in life as a predictor of mortality across adulthood. Psychological Science, 25(7), 1482–1486.
Sutin, A. R., Zavala, D., Milad, E., et al. (2026). Purpose in life and mortality: a meta-analysis of 488,765 participants. Psychological Medicine, 56, e214.
Oishi, S., & Diener, E. (2014). Residents of poor nations have a greater sense of meaning in life than residents of wealthy nations. Psychological Science, 25(2), 422–430.
Steger, M. F., & Frazier, P. (2005). Meaning in life: one link in the chain from religiousness to well-being. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52(4), 574–582.
Breitbart, W., Poppito, S., Rosenfeld, B., et al. (2012). Pilot randomized controlled trial of individual meaning-centered psychotherapy. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 30(12), 1304–1309.
Breitbart, W., Pessin, H., Rosenfeld, B., et al. (2018). Individual meaning-centered psychotherapy: a randomized controlled trial. Cancer, 124(15), 3231–3239.
Shen, B., Liu, J., Zhou, Y., & Zhu, H. (2025). Meaning-centered interventions in cancer: a meta-analysis. Supportive Care in Cancer, 33(1), 67.
Religious participation, community and belonging
Li, S., Stampfer, M. J., Williams, D. R., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2016). Association of religious service attendance with mortality among women. JAMA Internal Medicine, 176(6), 777–785.
VanderWeele, T. J., Li, S., Tsai, A. C., & Kawachi, I. (2016). Association between religious service attendance and lower suicide rates among US women. JAMA Psychiatry, 73(8), 845–851.
Chen, Y., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2018). Associations of religious upbringing with subsequent health and well-being. American Journal of Epidemiology, 187(11), 2355–2364.
Chen, Y., Koh, H. K., Kawachi, I., et al. (2020). Religious service attendance and deaths related to drugs, alcohol, and suicide. JAMA Psychiatry, 77(7), 737–744.
Chen, Y., Kim, E. S., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2020). Religious-service attendance and subsequent health and well-being throughout adulthood. International Journal of Epidemiology, 49(6), 2030–2040.
Chida, Y., Steptoe, A., & Powell, L. H. (2009). Religiosity/spirituality and mortality. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 78(2), 81–90.
Bagiella, E., Hong, V., & Sloan, R. P. (2005). Religious attendance as a predictor of survival in the EPESE cohorts. International Journal of Epidemiology, 34(2), 443–451.
Lim, C., & Putnam, R. D. (2010). Religion, social networks, and life satisfaction. American Sociological Review, 75(6), 914–933.
Garssen, B., Visser, A., & Pool, G. (2021). Does spirituality or religion positively affect mental health? International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 31(1), 4–20.
Diener, E., Tay, L., & Myers, D. G. (2011). The religion paradox. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(6), 1278–1290.
Gebauer, J. E., Sedikides, C., Schönbrodt, F. D., et al. (2017). The religiosity as social value hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(3), e18–e39.
Stavrova, O., Fetchenhauer, D., & Schlösser, T. (2013). Why are religious people happy? Social Science Research, 42(1), 90–105.
Hoogeveen, S., Sarafoglou, A., Aczél, B., et al. (2023). A many-analysts approach to the relation between religiosity and well-being. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 13(3), 237–283.
Maselko, J., Hayward, R. D., Hanlon, A., et al. (2012). Religious service attendance and major depression: a case of reverse causality? American Journal of Epidemiology, 175(6), 576–583.
Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., & Layton, J. B. (2010). Social relationships and mortality risk. PLoS Medicine, 7(7), e1000316.
Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., Baker, M., et al. (2015). Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(2), 227–237.
Elovainio, M., Hakulinen, C., Pulkki-Råback, L., et al. (2017). Contribution of risk factors to excess mortality in isolated and lonely individuals. The Lancet Public Health, 2(6), e260–e266.
Wang, F., Gao, Y., Han, Z., et al. (2023). A systematic review and meta-analysis of 90 cohort studies of social isolation, loneliness and mortality. Nature Human Behaviour, 7(8), 1307–1319.
Masi, C. M., Chen, H. Y., Hawkley, L. C., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2011). A meta-analysis of interventions to reduce loneliness. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 15(3), 219–266.
Ellison, C. G., Zhang, W., Krause, N., & Marcum, J. P. (2009). Does negative interaction in the church increase depression? Sociology of Religion, 70(4), 409–431.
Dougherty, K. D., & Whitehead, A. L. (2011). A place to belong: small group involvement in religious congregations. Sociology of Religion, 72(1), 91–111.
Sloan, R. P., Bagiella, E., & Powell, T. (1999). Religion, spirituality, and medicine. The Lancet, 353(9153), 664–667.
Sloan, R. P., & Bagiella, E. (2002). Claims about religious involvement and health outcomes. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 24(1), 14–21.
Prayer and contemplative practice
Roberts, L., Ahmed, I., & Davison, A. (2009). Intercessory prayer for the alleviation of ill health. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CD000368.
Masters, K. S., Spielmans, G. I., & Goodson, J. T. (2006). Are there demonstrable effects of distant intercessory prayer? Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 32(1), 21–26.
Benson, H., Dusek, J. A., Sherwood, J. B., et al. (2006). Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP). American Heart Journal, 151(4), 934–942.
Krucoff, M. W., et al. (2005). Music, imagery, touch, and prayer as adjuncts to interventional cardiac care (MANTRA II). The Lancet, 366(9481), 211–217.
Poloma, M. M., & Pendleton, B. F. (1989). Exploring types of prayer and quality of life. Review of Religious Research, 31(1), 46–53.
Whittington, B. L., & Scher, S. J. (2010). Prayer and subjective well-being: six different types of prayer. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 20(1), 59–68.
Rohde, J. S., Goldy, S., Graziosi, M., et al. (2024). Centering and flourishing. BMC Psychology, 12, 373.
Boelens, P. A., Reeves, R. R., Replogle, W. H., & Koenig, H. G. (2009). A randomized trial of the effect of prayer on depression and anxiety. International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 39(4), 377–392.
Goyal, M., Singh, S., Sibinga, E. M. S., et al. (2014). Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being. JAMA Internal Medicine, 174(3), 357–368.
Koenig, H. G., Pearce, M. J., Nelson, B., et al. (2015). Religious vs. conventional cognitive behavioral therapy for major depression. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 203(4), 243–251.
Captari, L. E., Hook, J. N., Hoyt, W., et al. (2018). Integrating clients' religion and spirituality within psychotherapy: a comprehensive meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 74(11), 1938–1951.
Wachholtz, A. B., & Pargament, K. I. (2005). Is spirituality a critical ingredient of meditation? Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 28(4), 369–384.
Rest, detachment and the Sabbath
Wendsche, J., & Lohmann-Haislah, A. (2017). A meta-analysis on antecedents and outcomes of detachment from work. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 2072.
Davidson, O. B., Eden, D., Westman, M., et al. (2010). Sabbatical leave: who gains and how much? Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(5), 953–964.
Hough, H., Proeschold-Bell, R. J., Liu, X., et al. (2019). Relationships between Sabbath observance and mental, physical, and spiritual health in clergy. Pastoral Psychology, 68(2), 171–193.
Cheng, A., Lee, M. H., & Djita, R. (2023). Sabbath practices and teachers' burnout. Journal of Religion and Health, 62(2), 1090–1113.
Proeschold-Bell, R. J., Stringfield, B., Yao, J., et al. (2022). Changes in Sabbath-keeping and mental health over time. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 50(2), 123–138.
Superville, D. J., Pargament, K. I., & Lee, J. W. (2014). Sabbath keeping and its relationships to health and well-being. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 24(3), 241–256.
Fraser, G. E., & Shavlik, D. J. (2001). Ten years of life: is it a matter of choice? Archives of Internal Medicine, 161(13), 1645–1652.
Orlich, M. J., Singh, P. N., Sabaté, J., et al. (2013). Vegetarian dietary patterns and mortality in Adventist Health Study 2. JAMA Internal Medicine, 173(13), 1230–1238.
Forgiveness
Wade, N. G., Hoyt, W. T., Kidwell, J. E. M., & Worthington, E. L. Jr. (2014). Efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions to promote forgiveness. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 82(1), 154–170.
Akhtar, S., & Barlow, J. (2018). Forgiveness therapy for the promotion of mental well-being. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 19(1), 107–122.
Ho, M. Y., Worthington, E. L. Jr., Cowden, R. G., et al. (2024). International REACH forgiveness intervention: a multisite randomised controlled trial. BMJ Public Health, 2(1), e000072.
Wade, N. G., Cornish, M. A., Tucker, J. R., et al. (2018). Promoting forgiveness: characteristics of the treatment, the clients, and their interaction. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 65(3), 358–371.
Rapp, H., Wang Xu, J., & Enright, R. D. (2022). A meta-analysis of forgiveness education interventions' effects on forgiveness and anger in children and adolescents. Child Development, 93(5), 1249–1269.
Cowden, R. G., Worthington, E. L. Jr., Padgett, R. N., et al. (2026). Longitudinal associations of dispositional forgivingness with multidimensional well-being. npj Mental Health Research, 5(1), 3.
Long, K. N. G., Chen, Y., Potts, M., et al. (2020). Spiritually motivated self-forgiveness and divine forgiveness, and subsequent health and well-being. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1337.
McNulty, J. K. (2008). Forgiveness in marriage: putting the benefits into context. Journal of Family Psychology, 22(1), 171–175.
McNulty, J. K. (2011). The dark side of forgiveness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(6), 770–783.
Luchies, L. B., Finkel, E. J., McNulty, J. K., & Kumashiro, M. (2010). The doormat effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(5), 734–749.
Gordon, K. C., Burton, S., & Porter, L. (2004). Predicting the intentions of women in domestic violence shelters to return to partners. Journal of Family Psychology, 18(2), 331–338.
Reed, G. L., & Enright, R. D. (2006). The effects of forgiveness therapy on depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress for women after spousal emotional abuse. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74(5), 920–929.
Woodyatt, L., Wenzel, M., & Ferber, M. (2017). Two pathways to self-forgiveness. British Journal of Social Psychology, 56(3), 515–536.
Wenzel, M., & Okimoto, T. G. (2010). How acts of forgiveness restore a sense of justice. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(3), 401–417.
Klatte, R., Strauss, B., Flückiger, C., & Rosendahl, J. (2025). Adverse events in psychotherapy randomised controlled trials. Psychotherapy Research, 35(1), 84–99.
Gratitude, service and giving
Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377–389.
Wood, A. M., Froh, J. J., & Geraghty, A. W. A. (2010). Gratitude and well-being: a review and theoretical integration. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(7), 890–905.
Davis, D. E., Choe, E., Meyers, J., et al. (2016). Thankful for the little things: a meta-analysis of gratitude interventions. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63(1), 20–31.
Cregg, D. R., & Cheavens, J. S. (2021). Gratitude interventions: effective self-help? Journal of Happiness Studies, 22, 413–445.
Choi, H., Cha, Y., McCullough, M. E., Coles, N. A., & Oishi, S. (2025). A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of gratitude interventions on well-being across cultures. PNAS, 122(28).
Coles, N. A., Dang, A. V., Oishi, S., et al. (2026). A multinational megastudy of the effects of gratitude practices on subjective well-being. PNAS, 123(20).
Dunn, E. W., Aknin, L. B., & Norton, M. I. (2008). Spending money on others promotes happiness. Science, 319(5870), 1687–1688.
Aknin, L. B., Dunn, E. W., Proulx, J., Lok, I., & Norton, M. I. (2020). Does spending money on others promote happiness? A registered replication report. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119(2), e15–e26.
Okun, M. A., Yeung, E. W., & Brown, S. (2013). Volunteering by older adults and risk of mortality: a meta-analysis. Psychology and Aging, 28(2), 564–577.
Konrath, S., Fuhrel-Forbis, A., Lou, A., & Brown, S. (2012). Motives for volunteering are associated with mortality risk in older adults. Health Psychology, 31(1), 87–96.
Fried, L. P., et al. (2013). Experience Corps: a dual trial to promote the health of older adults and children's academic success. Contemporary Clinical Trials, 36(1), 1–13.
Religious struggle, coping and harm
Pargament, K. I., Koenig, H. G., Tarakeshwar, N., & Hahn, J. (2001). Religious struggle as a predictor of mortality among medically ill elderly patients. Archives of Internal Medicine, 161(15), 1881–1885.
Ano, G. G., & Vasconcelles, E. B. (2005). Religious coping and psychological adjustment to stress: a meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 61(4), 461–480.
Exline, J. J., Pargament, K. I., Grubbs, J. B., & Yali, A. M. (2014). The Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 6(3), 208–222.
Blosnich, J. R., De Luca, S., Lytle, M. C., & Brownson, C. (2020). Questions of faith: religious affiliations and suicidal ideation among sexual minority young adults. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 50(6), 1158–1166.
Blosnich, J. R., Henderson, E. R., Coulter, R. W. S., et al. (2020). Sexual orientation change efforts, adverse childhood experiences, and suicide ideation and attempt. American Journal of Public Health.
Fenelon, A., & Danielsen, S. (2016). Leaving my religion. Social Science Research, 57, 49–62.
Religion, society and the wider claims
Norenzayan, A., Shariff, A. F., Gervais, W. M., et al. (2016). The cultural evolution of prosocial religions. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 39, e1.
Whitehouse, H., François, P., Savage, P. E., et al. (2019). Complex societies precede moralizing gods throughout world history. Nature, 568, 226–229. RETRACTED 2021.
Beheim, B., Atkinson, Q. D., Bulbulia, J., et al. (2021). Treatment of missing data determined conclusions regarding moralizing gods. Nature, 595, E29–E34.
Shariff, A. F., Willard, A. K., Andersen, T., & Norenzayan, A. (2016). Religious priming: a meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 20(1), 27–48.
van Elk, M., Matzke, D., Gronau, Q. F., et al. (2015). Meta-analyses are no substitute for registered replications. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1365.
Billingsley, J., Gomes, C. M., & McCullough, M. E. (2018). Implicit and explicit influences of religious cognition on Dictator Game transfers. Royal Society Open Science, 5(8), 170238.
Schulz, J. F., Bahrami-Rad, D., Beauchamp, J. P., & Henrich, J. (2019). The Church, intensive kinship, and global psychological variation. Science, 366(6466), eaau5141.
Conley, T. G., & Kelly, M. (2025). The standard errors of persistence. Journal of International Economics, 153, 104027.
Bryan, G., Choi, J. J., & Karlan, D. (2021). Randomizing religion. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 136(1), 293–380.
Gruber, J., & Hungerman, D. M. (2008). The church versus the mall. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 123(2), 831–862.
Method
Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.) (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching and Assessing. Longman.
Ioannidis, J. P. A., Tan, Y. J., & Blum, M. R. (2019). Limitations and misinterpretations of E-values. Annals of Internal Medicine, 170(2), 108–111.
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design (2nd ed.). ASCD.
Something wrong here? Tell us which claim and which source, and we
will check it and change it. That is the whole reason the sources are published.