IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hic/wpaper/392.html

Under God’s protective wings: Does exposure to violent conflict make Nigerians value God more?

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Tuki

    (Research Fellow, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Germany)

Abstract

This study examines the effect of exposure to violent conflict on the importance that Nigerians attach to God in their lives. The regression results show that conflict exposure positively correlates with the importance attached to God. The analysis also shows that the more recent a conflict is, the larger is its effect on the importance attached to God. The positive correlation persisted when I broke down the data based on religious affiliation (Christians and Muslims) and gender (males and females) and estimated models using these subsamples of respondents. However, the size of the effect was larger among Christians than Muslims. The effect size was also larger among females than males. A plausible mechanism behind these results is that reliance upon God serves as a coping strategy to deal with the threats posed by violent conflict. These results are robust to different operationalizations of violent conflict.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Tuki, 2023. "Under God’s protective wings: Does exposure to violent conflict make Nigerians value God more?," HiCN Working Papers 392, Households in Conflict Network.
    • Handle: RePEc:hic:wpaper:392
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hicn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/HiCN-WP-392.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bentzen, Jeanet Sinding, 2021. "In crisis, we pray: Religiosity and the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 541-583.
    2. Jeanet Sinding Bentzen, 2019. "Acts of God? Religiosity and Natural Disasters Across Subnational World Districts," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(622), pages 2295-2321.
    3. Sandra Iman Pertek, 2022. "“God Helped Us”: Resilience, Religion and Experiences of Gender-Based Violence and Trafficking among African Forced Migrant Women," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-15, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tuki, Daniel, 2023. "You’re not welcome! Violence and support for a grazing ban policy in Kaduna, Nigeria," SocArXiv 3hec8, Center for Open Science.
    2. Tuki, Daniel, 2024. "Undead Past: What Drives Support for the Secessionist Goal of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in Nigeria?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 26-54.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tuki, Daniel, 2023. "Under God’s protective wings: Does exposure to violent conflict make Nigerians value God more?," SocArXiv 48x6e_v1, Center for Open Science.
    2. Karlan, Dean & Lowe, Matt & Osei, Robert & Osei-Akoto, Isaac & Roth, Benjamin N. & Udry, Christopher, 2026. "Social protection and social distancing during the pandemic: Mobile money transfers in Ghana," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    3. Voigt, Stefan, 2022. "Determinant of Social Norms," ILE Working Paper Series 58, University of Hamburg, Institute of Law and Economics.
    4. repec:ajt:wcinch:74583 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Jeanet Sinding Bentzen & Nina Boberg-Fazlić & Paul Sharp & Christian Volmar Skovsgaard & Christian Vedel, 2024. "Assimilate for God: The Impact of Religious Divisions on Danish American Communities," Working Papers 0253, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    6. Berkes, Enrico & Coluccia, Davide Maria & Dossi, Gaia & Squicciarini, Mara, 2023. "Dealing With Adversity: Religiosity or Science? Evidence From the Great Influenza Pandemic," CEPR Discussion Papers 18008, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    7. Hasan, Iftekhar & Manfredonia, Stefano & Noth, Felix, 2020. "Cultural resilience and economic recovery: Evidence from Hurricane Katrina," IWH Discussion Papers 16/2020, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    8. Vincenzo Alfano & Salvatore Ercolano & Gaetano Vecchione, 2020. "Religious Attendance and Covid-19. Evidences from Italian Regions," CESifo Working Paper Series 8596, CESifo.
    9. Frank van Tubergen1,2, & Yuliya Kosyakova & Agnieszka Kanas, 2022. "Conflict intensity in the region of birth increases religiosity among refugees," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 2222, ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin).
    10. Bentzen, Jeanet Sinding & Boberg-Fazlic, Nina & Sharp, Paul & Skovsgaard, Christian Volmar & Vedel, Christian, 2026. "Holy cows and spilled milk: The impact of religious missions on firm-level productivity," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    11. Huma Fatima & Tosin Philip Oyetunji & Sudha Mishra & Krittika Sinha & Olorunyomi Felix Olorunsogbon & Oluwayemi Samson Akande & Srinivasan & Sujita Kumar Kar, 2022. "Religious coping in the time of COVID-19 Pandemic in India and Nigeria: Finding of a cross-national community survey," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 68(2), pages 309-315, March.
    12. Bahal, Girish & Iyer, Sriya & Shastry, Kishen & Shrivastava, Anand, 2023. "Religion, Covid-19 and mental health," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    13. Armand, Alex & Augsburg, Britta & Bancalari, Antonella & Kameshwara, Kalyan Kumar, 2026. "Corrigendum to “Religious proximity and misinformation: Experimental evidence from a mobile phone-based campaign in India” [Journal of Health Economics Volume 96, June 2024, 102883]," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    14. Iyer, Sriya & Larcom, Shaun & Shah, Jaimin & She, Po-Wen, 2025. "Do religious people cope better in a crisis? Evidence from the UK pandemic lockdowns," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    15. Tim Friehe & Christian Pfeifer, 2024. "A family member's death increases religious activity: Evidence from Germany," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(2), pages 458-468, May.
    16. Cavalcanti, Tiago & Iyer, Sriya & Rauh, Christopher & Roerig, Christian & Vaziri, Maryam, 2022. "A City of God: Afterlife Beliefs and Job Support in Brazil," CEPR Discussion Papers 17719, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    17. Barili, E. & Bertoli, P. & Grembi, V. & Rattini, V., 2021. "COVID Angels Fighting Daily Demons? Mental Health of Healthcare Workers and Religion," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 21/05, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    18. Barili, Emilia & Bertoli, Paola & Grembi, Veronica & Rattini, Veronica, 2024. "COVID angels fighting daily demons? Mental well-being of healthcare workers and religiosity," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    19. Marcello D’Amato & Francesco Flaviano Russo, 2026. "Cultural doorways in the barriers to development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 125-178, March.
    20. Panin, Amma, 2021. "Four reasons why analysis of economic policy and religion go hand-in-hand in sub-Saharan Africa," PEGNet Policy Briefs 23/2020, PEGNet - Poverty Reduction, Equity and Growth Network, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    21. Bentzen, Jeanet Sinding, 2021. "In crisis, we pray: Religiosity and the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 541-583.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • N37 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Africa; Oceania
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hic:wpaper:392. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tilman Brück or the person in charge or the person in charge or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hicn.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.