Dr. David DeSteno

And it's not just community.

You know, another kind of criticism always has been, well, Dave –

You know, these health benefits, it's just community.

If they joined a bowling club, right, to use Robert Putnam's analogy of bowling alone, they would get the same health benefits.

What you see in the data is that the effect size, which is basically the degree, how much bang for the buck you get.

Yeah, being in community, joining clubs, having tighter social networks makes you healthier and happier.

But the effect size is larger.

for religious community, right?

They're doing something in those communities.

And I think it's the practices they do that matter.

And even among young adults, where we're seeing increasing levels of anxiety and depression, even private practices, things like prayer and meditation are showing up as ways to buffer those and protect against them.

It's a good question.

So these aren't my data.

These are data from Tyler Vanderbilt and other folks.

They haven't examined every religion.

But when they do look across some faiths, it's a pretty stable finding.

Okay.

It depends on your philosophy of science.

For me, I tend to think about this.

So I'm a psychologist.