On this page, you will find scales, implicit measures, and datasets.
Scales
Supernatural Belief Scale (10 items)
The Supernatural Belief Scale (Jong et al., 2013) is an essentially unidimensional measure designed and validated to measure individuals' tendencies to believe in supernatural agents, entities, and events. The SBS-10 is to be presented in fixed order. For the German and Croatian version of the SBS-10, and other information about translating the SBS, please contact me.
The reference for the SBS-10 is:
Jong, J., Bluemke, M., & Halberstadt, J. (2013). Fear of death and supernatural beliefs: developing a new Supernatural Belief Scale to test the relationship. European Journal of Personality, 27, 495—506.
Supernatural Belief Scale (6 items)
The SBS-6 is adapted for cross-cultural use. It has marginally weaker predictive power than the SBS-10, but should be used particularly for non-Abrahamic contexts. The SBS-6 is to be presented in fixed order.
The SBS-6 has also been translated into various other languages. If you would like to help to improve these translation or generate new ones, please get in touch!
Japanese (Hiragana) SBS (v. 1, as used in Jong & Halberstadt, 2016; Jong et al., 2019)
Japanese (Hiragana) SBS (v. 2)
The reference for the SBS-6 is:
Jong, J., & Halberstadt, J. (2016). Death anxiety and religious belief: an existential psychology of religion. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic.
Existential Death Anxiety Scale
The Existential Death Anxiety Scale is a 12-item measure with a two-factor structure. The first factor is General Death Anxiety (GDA); the second factor is Existential Death Anxiety (EDA). Existential death anxiety is essentially the fear of not existing. These two factors are highly correlated. The EDAS may be used as a single 12-item measure, or two 6-item measures.
Download psychometric information
The reference for the SBS-6 is:
Jong, J., & Halberstadt, J. (2016). Death anxiety and religious belief: an existential psychology of religion. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic.
Implicit Measures
Supernatural Belief Single-target Implicit Association Test
The Supernatural Belief ST-IAT (Jong et al., 2012) is a single-target IAT, designed and validated for measuring implicit associations between religious concepts and existential concepts. Items in the SB ST-IAT were based on the SBS above.
Download SB ST-IAT instructions here. For Javascript code for Qualtrics, please contact me.
The SB ST-IAT is also described here:
Jong, J., & Halberstadt, J. (2016). Death anxiety and religious belief: an existential psychology of religion. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic.
Supernatural Belief Property Verification Task
The Supernatural Belief PVT (Jong et al., 2012) is a simple classification task, in which participants classical supernatural entities as either real or imaginary.
Download SB PVT instructions here
The SB PVT is also described here:
Jong, J., & Halberstadt, J. (2016). Death anxiety and religious belief: an existential psychology of religion. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic.
Datasets
International Death Survey
The International Death Survey currently comprises three datasets from a project about the relationship between death anxiety and religiosity. These include data from 1,838 individuals in the United States (n = 813), Brazil (n = 800), Russia (n = 800), the Philippines (n = 200), South Korea (n = 200), and Japan (n = 219). Measures were largely consistent across samples: they include measures of death anxiety, experience of and exposure to death, religious belief, religious behaviour, religious experience, and demographic information. Responses have also been back-translated into English where necessary, though original untranslated data are also included.
A data descriptor of the study may be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-019-0163-x
The questionnaires are datasets are freely available here: https://osf.io/5dx7s/
Negative Experience and Religiosity
The Negative Experience and Religiosity Project currently comprises two datasets from a project about the relationship between traumatic life experiences and religiosity. These include data from 1,754 individuals in the United States (n = 322), Brazil (n = 205), China (n = 202), India (n = 205), Indonesia (n = 205), Russia (n = 205), Thailand (n = 205), and Turkey (n = 205). Surveys were consistent across samples: they include measures of traumatic life experiences, negative affective traits, existential security, life satisfaction, death anxiety, and various religious beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours. Psychometric evaluations of measures of supernatural belief and death anxiety were conducted.
A data descriptor of the study may be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-020-0482-y
The questionnaires are datasets are freely available here: https://osf.io/3d58w/