Religious meaning-making frequently involves attributing purpose to life events, from interpreting misfortunes as lessons to perceiving coincidences as divine signs, yet systematic research on the cognitive basis of such attributions remains limited and fragmented. Existing measures capture only selected aspects of teleology (e.g., biological, life event purpose), precluding comprehensive assessment. Competing conceptualizations of both teleology and religiosity prevent clear conclusions about which dimensions relate and why. Moreover, research has mostly documented generalized trait-level tendencies, leaving unexamined whether more religious individuals actually engage in more frequent teleological interpretations of everyday events. Finally, the robustness and strength of teleology-religiosity associations remain unclear. We address these limitations through an integrated research program comprising three studies. First, the development and validation of a comprehensive teleological thinking measure in 1,039 Polish adults yields a two-factor structure distinguishing purposeful event attribution and rejection of mechanistic explanations, enabling nuanced examination across religiosity dimensions. Results reveal teleological thinking associates most strongly with experiential-cognitive dimensions (Religious Experience, Beliefs, Prayer) and less strongly with institutional practice (Worship), demonstrating it specifically enables perceived divine presence rather than ritual participation. Second, preliminary experience sampling data examine whether individuals higher in trait religiosity and spirituality show more frequent momentary teleological explanations of daily events, testing whether trait associations reflect differences in real-time meaning-making processes. Third, ongoing meta-analytic synthesis integrates prior findings to establish the robustness of teleology-religiosity associations across conceptualizations and contexts. Converging evidence positions teleological thinking as a distinct cognitive foundation for experiential religiosity, resolving longstanding measurement and conceptual ambiguities.
Teleological Thinking and Religiosity: Integrating Cross-Sectional, Momentary, and Meta-Analytic Evidence