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Beliefs about the Meaning of Life in American and Indian College Students: Similar or Different?

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Abstract

The top ten themes regarding beliefs about the meaning of life were obtained from archival research by Kinnier et al. (J Humanist Psychol 48:196–202, 2003) from quotes of eminent people like Einstein, Gandhi, Nietzsche, and the Dalai Lama. These themes included the following: “To enjoy or experience life, enjoy the moment, the journey,” “to love, help, or serve others; to show or experience compassion,” “life is meaningless,” “to serve or worship God and/or prepare for the next (or after-) life,” “to become self-actualized,” and “life is absurd or a joke.” The present study compared American (N = 108) and Indian (N = 110) college students’ degree of agreement or disagreement with these themes. Both American and Indian participants reported the most agreement with these two themes: “Main aim of life is to love, help, or serve others; to show or experience compassion,” and “main aim of life is to enjoy or experience it.” Similarly, both American and Indian participants reported the least agreement with the following two themes: “Life is meaningless” and “life is absurd or a joke.”

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Notes

  1. https://www.iep.utm.edu/mean-ear/.

  2. Religious affiliation was also measured in this study in the two college samples in the US and India. About 82% of the American participants were Christians, 7.5% agnostic or atheists, 10% did not report anything, and less than 1% reported both Buddhist and Judaism. About 67% of the Indian participants were Hindus, and 21% Jain, 10% Muslim, and less than 1% both Sikhs and Christians. The religious affiliations of the participants in both countries were reclassified into Abrahamic for Christians, Muslims, and Jewish faiths; Eastern non-Abrahamic for Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism; and Atheists/Agnostics together. Post hoc analysis was also carried out with a Tukey’s test. There were no significant differences observed between these reclassified religious categories for any themes regarding the beliefs about the meaning of life except for one. Significant differences were observed among these three religious groups with regard to agreement with the following theme, “Main aim of life is to serve or worship God and/or prepare for the next (or after-) life”, F(3, 216) = 9.0, p < .001. Post hoc comparison revealed a significant difference between Agnostic/Atheists and Abrahamic faiths (p = .001) and between Agnostic/Atheists and Eastern non-Abrahamic faiths (p = .007). Agnostic/Atheists reported less agreement (M = 2.0, SD= .87) than Abrahamic faiths (M = 3.41, SD= .95) and Eastern non-Abrahamic faiths (M = 3.2, SD= 1.2) with this theme. Since only 7.5% of American students reported being atheists and none in India, this was not investigated further.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Emily Lipner and Dr Kathryn N. Healey for their assistance in data collection and coding at Widener University, Chester, PA. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Naureen Bhullar, Behavioural Sciences Lab, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore 560076, India.

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Bhullar, N. Beliefs about the Meaning of Life in American and Indian College Students: Similar or Different?. Psychol Stud 64, 420–428 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-019-00490-6

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