War, traumatic health shocks, and religiosity

This study uses the setting of war to study the causal impact of traumatic life-and-death health shocks on religiosity. Exploiting the administrative procedures by which U.S. Armed Forces senior commanders conditionally randomly assign active-duty servicemen to war deployments as a natural experiment, we find that post-September 11 combat service substantially increases the probability that a serviceman subsequently attends religious services and engages in private prayer. Estimated effects are largest for enlisted servicemen, those under age 25, and servicemen wounded in combat. The physical and psychological health effects of war, as well as the presence of military chaplains in combat zones, emerge as partial mechanisms to explain increases in religiosity. We find that combat service increases servicemen's demand for both religious and secular psychological services.