Previous research finds an association between spirituality and subjective well-being. However, the widespread use of poorly defined concepts of spirituality, tautological spirituality scales, and heavy reliance on cross-sectional samples cast doubts on prior findings. Here, we leverage ten waves of panel data from a nationally diverse longitudinal study to systematically test whether having spiritual beliefs leads to growth in personal well-being and life satisfaction (N = 3257, New Zealand, 2010–2020). Contrary to previous research, we find that belief in a spirit or life force predicts lower personal well-being and life satisfaction. However, in support of previous speculation, belief (relative to disbelief) in a spirit or life force predicts increasing personal well-being and life satisfaction over time. These findings are robust even while accounting for known demographic influences; they even hold among those who believe in a God but disbelieve in a spirit or life force. The recent growth in spiritual beliefs and decline in traditional religion across many industrial societies motivates further causal investigations of the mechanisms by which spiritual beliefs lead to growth in subjective well-being.

先前的研究发现灵性与主观幸福感之间存在关联。然而，广泛使用定义不明确的灵性概念、同义反复的灵性量表以及对横截面样本的严重依赖，使人们对先前的发现产生了怀疑。在这里，我们利用来自全国不同纵向研究的十波面板数据来系统地测试拥有精神信仰是否会导致个人幸福感和生活满意度的增长（N = 3257，新西兰，2010-2020）。与之前的研究相反，我们发现对精神或生命力的信仰预示着较低的个人幸福感和生活满意度。然而，为了支持先前的推测，对精神或生命力的信念（相对于不相信）预示着个人幸福感和生活满意度会随着时间的推移而增加。即使考虑到已知的人口影响，这些发现也是可靠的；他们甚至在那些相信上帝但不相信精神或生命力的人中占有一席之地。最近在许多工业社会中精神信仰的增长和传统宗教的衰落促使人们进一步研究精神信仰导致主观幸福感增长的机制。