The Impact of Pilgrimage to Mashhad Al-Ridha on the Reduction of Students’ Social Apathy: A Case Study of Ayatollah Ozma Borujerdi University Students

Social apathy is a social disorder which prevents individuals from social participation and it is affected by a number of factors, including lifestyle, religious beliefs and so on. The present study investigates the role of going on a pilgrimage to Mashhad in social apathy of students of Ayatollah Ozma Borujerdi University, and it considers students’ apathy in two time periods, before and after going on a pilgrimage to Mashhad. Statistical population of research were all students of the university who went on a pilgrimage to Imam Reza’s Holy Shrine in 2015-2016 academic year, 200 of which were selected randomly. The survey research method was employed and data was collected through questionnaires. For validity measurement, content validity and for measuring reliability, Cronbach's alpha method was used. The test results of mean differences showed that social apathy has changed significantly before and after the pilgrimage period. The results also showed that there is an inverse relationship between the pilgrimage to Mashhad Al-Ridha and social apathy as well as between social apathy and social effectiveness. Research data confirmed that there is a positive significant relationship between anomie perception and social apathy. The independent variables could explain 49 percent of dependent variable changes.