Gender Differences in Religiosity and Power-Control Theory

Despite the consensus of social scientists on the greater religiosity of women than men in all religions and sects, explaining why this empirically stable pattern is considered a scientific puzzle. To solve this puzzle, sociologists have also made various theoretical efforts, the most recent of which was introduced in the late twentieth century as the "theory of risk preference". The present study was conducted in continuation of this new field of study in the sociology of religion on the relationship between risk preference and religiosity in the light of a synthetic theoretical model. Therefore, at the theoretical level, an attempt was made to combine the theory of power-control and the theory of risk preference to develop a model for the sociological explanation of gender differences in religiosity. Then, at the experimental level, testing this theoretical model with the data obtained from the national population of Iranian Muslims. Overall, the results of this study indicated the empirical support of this theoretical model among Iranian Muslims so that the two constructs of "family structure" and "risk aversion" were able to significantly reduce the gender gap in all aspects of Iranian Muslims' religiosity.