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There is a burgeoning literature that investigates the effects of religion on relationship dissolution. This study is distinguished from prior scholarship in three broad areas: The investigation estimates the effect of religion on relationship stability using multiple measures of religious affiliation and religious observance; it is based on information of the respondent and their partner for both cohabiting and marital relationships; and it is performed using multiple waves of a large‐scale nationally representative panel data set, the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. It addresses key limitations, such as: the use of a single measure of religion, a tendency to only use married individual data, and an overreliance on cross‐sectional data. The results indicate that intrafaith couples tend to have a higher degree of relationship stability than other couple types; although, once other factors are controlled for, this effect is no longer statistically significant. We also find religiosity, in particular, religious attendance has a large positive effect on stability in intrafaith couples but can lower stability in interfaith and mixed couples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Switzerland, two key church institutions—the Conference of Swiss Bishops and the Federation of Protestant Churches—make public recommendations on how to vote for certain referenda. We leverage this situation to directly measure religious organizations' power to reflect and shape human decision making. That is, using a direct measure of voters' commitment to their religious institution, we analyze whether they are more likely to vote in line with this organization's voting recommendation. We find that these recommendations do indeed wield influence, implying that even in a secularized world, religion plays a crucial role in voting decisions. Our results hold for both aggregate and individual‐level voting decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Although superstition is a common phenomenon in our modern society, only a few studies have explored empirically on what it depends. This paper investigates the factors which determine superstition, reporting some preliminary empirical results. The findings indicate that socio-demographic and socio-economic conditions matter. There seems to be a certain concurrence between churches and superstitious beliefs, the correlation between superstition and attendance of church and other religious activities being mostly negative. On the other hand, an overall greater religiosity increases superstition. The results also indicate that there is a strong variance in superstition in different countries. People from formerly Communist countries show a particularly high degree of superstition. It could therefore be concluded that superstition substituted the religious beliefs and activities eradicated during the Communist era. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]