God and Gold: The Moderating Role of Countries' Historical Religious Heritage in the Income–Life Satisfaction Relationship.

This article investigates how a country's religious heritage moderates the relationship between household income and personal life satisfaction (PLS) across 86 nations categorized by five major religious traditions: Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Buddhist, and Muslim. The study finds that household income predicts life satisfaction more strongly in Protestant-heritage countries and more weakly in Catholic- and Orthodox-heritage countries, while the association is average in Buddhist- and Muslim-heritage countries. Additionally, countries with Catholic and Orthodox heritages report higher average life satisfaction, whereas Muslim and Protestant countries report lower average life satisfaction. These effects remain significant even after controlling for national wealth, economic inequality, religiosity, democracy, and environmental factors, suggesting that religious heritage shapes societal norms and institutions influencing how income relates to life satisfaction.