Perceived government instability increases belief in God as compensation

Evidence

Interestingly, faith in government and faith in God appear to compensate for each other. In one study, Aaron Kay and his colleagues had Canadian participants read a news story about government instability in Ottawa. “Nobody can predict when an election will be held,” the story went, and “it is not clear what that would mean for the ordinary Canadian.” The comparison group read a similarly worded story touting political stability in Canada, and how elections, even if called, would not disturb things. Then participants were asked about their belief in God. Perceptions of political instability increased belief in God. And conversely, in a separate study, perceptions of a strong, stable Canadian government reduced belief in God, particularly among people who saw God as a source of control over the world. Kay and colleagues also found that electoral instability just before national elections undermined faith in the government, which then led to subsequent increases in faith in God. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 569

Categorization

• XREF: Directly supports the reader’s analytical bridge: faith in an all-seeing Big God and faith in secular institutions substitute for each other — relevant to why Japanese authorities in the novel weaponize public apostasy against Rodrigues rather than relying on docile institutions.
• QUESTION: Does this compensation dynamic hold in high-risk contexts where Big God belief has already been strong, or only where institutional trust is the default baseline?