Is there a religious explanation for high life satisfaction in Latin America?

Abstract

Recent initiatives call for the incorporation of subjective well-being measures in the assessment of development. Latin Americans do report, on average, very high life satisfaction levels, which are also higher than what would be predicted for their socio-economic situation. Within this context, it becomes relevant to explore some arguments that have been proposed to explain high life satisfaction in Latin America within a not so favourable socio-economic context. This paper studies the soundness of the religious explanation for high life satisfaction in Latin America; the argument is based on modernisation theories, and it states that higher-than-expected life satisfaction in Latin America is explained by high religiosity in the region. The investigation relies on representative surveys applied in three high life-satisfaction Latin American countries (Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico), as well as to the non-Hispanic White population in the United States. A cross-regional methodology is implemented to study the role of religious practice, religious-events participation, and religious affiliation in explaining higher-than-­expected life satisfaction in Latin America. It is found that religious variables do not explain the high life satisfaction levels in the Latin American countries under study.