Religiosity moderates the relationship between negative affect and life satisfaction: A study in 29 European countries

•Many religions emphasize living a religious life over affective experience.•It was predicted that religiosity would moderate affect–life satisfaction relationship.•Negative affect was a stronger predictor of life satisfaction in less religious individuals.

Many religions contend that the key to well-being is living one’s life based on religious standards, rather having certain emotional experiences. On this basis, it is predicted that the relationship between positive and negative affect and life satisfaction would be stronger in less religious individuals. Using multi-level modeling in a sample of 50,130 participants from 29 European countries, this study reveals that religiosity moderates the relationship between negative affect and life satisfaction, such that life satisfaction is less strongly influenced by the frequency of negative emotions in more religious (vs less religious) individuals.