Religious heterogeneity and suicide: A cross-national analysis

Religion has received a large amount of scholarly attention for its role in promoting pro-social outcomes for a community. One of the areas in which religion may demonstrate a positive effect is suicide. The role that religion plays in reducing suicide within a community has long roots in sociology. Emile Durkheim suggested that religion would have a pro-social effect in decreasing suicide. Religion should reduce suicide by establishing values and norms that integrate individuals into society and regulate the behavior of the members of a society. However, the presence of many different religions could erode the social integration and regulation effects of religion. This would cause suicide to increase as individuals become confused as to what values and norms are to be followed. The current analysis uses the religious fractionalization index to examine the effect of religious heterogeneity on suicide. The findings demonstrate that increased religious heterogeneity increased suicide for a sample of countries.