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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Media Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1485265

The Revival of Spiritual Practices: Factors Influencing the "Seeking Deities and Offering Prayers" Behavior of China's Generation Z on Social Media in an Atheistic Context

Provisionally accepted
Jing Wang Jing Wang 1Balamuralithara Balakrishnan Balamuralithara Balakrishnan 2Xiaohui Wan Xiaohui Wan 2Qirui Yu Qirui Yu 3Qiqi Ye Qiqi Ye 4*
  • 1 Putian University, Putian, China
  • 2 Sultan Idris University of Education, Tanjung Malim, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia
  • 3 University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 4 Wenzhou Institute of Technology, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The digital religious behavior of Generation Z youth in China on social media has become a noteworthy issue. However, there is very limited research on digital religious behavior in mainland China. This study fills this gap by extending the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to predict additional influencing factors of digital religious intentions and behavior. The results show that attitudes toward digital religion, perceived behavioral control, social identity, and empathetic willingness are predictors of intentions, while social norms are not. Intentions significantly predict users' behavior on social media platforms such as Weibo and Douyin. Moreover, empathetic willingness and social identity fully mediate the effects of subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and attitudes on intentions. Consequently, these behaviors generate impact, indicating the presence of multiple mediation effects. These findings may help reveal the evolution of religious attitudes and behaviors among Generation Z in the rapidly developing and complex social media context, providing practical support for the application of the extended TPB model in China.

    Keywords: digital religious behavior1, Chinese Generation Z2, Social Media3, theory of planned behavior4, social identity5, empathetic willingness6

    Received: 23 Aug 2024; Accepted: 09 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wang, Balakrishnan, Wan, Yu and Ye. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Qiqi Ye, Wenzhou Institute of Technology, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.