Something is coming: meteorite sightings and religious preferences

• Autores: Navajas Jauregui, Juan Sebastian
• Año de publicación: 2024
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: tesis de maestría
• Colaborador/a o director/a de tesis: Murphy, Tomás
• Institución: Universidad de San Andrés

Fil: Navajas Jauregui, Juan Sebastian. Universidad de San Andrés. Departamento de Economía; Argentina.
Can meteorite sightings intensify religious sentiments? This paper exploits the exogenous variability of meteorite sightings in the United States to investigate the causal relationship with religious intensity at the county level. The results show that meteorite sighting increases religiosity in the treated counties, as measured by the names children receive from their parents at birth. The historical perspective of this phenomenon allows me to analyse a society with a low dynamic in the flow of information, which is crucial for such a phenomenon to be seen as unpredictable and inexplicable. The hypothesis underlying this result is that religion serves as a response to the existentialist feelings aroused by such events. The results are in line with coping theory.