The Sacred Power of Beauty: Examining the Perceptual Effect of Buddhist Symbols on Happiness and Life Satisfaction in China

Abstract

The theoretical relationship between Buddhism and subjective well-being has gained much academic attention in recent decades. However, the prominent determinants of religiosity remain limited for researchers to understand a holistic picture of religion-informed subjective well-being, particularly in the context of Buddhism. This study has applied a quantitative survey to verify the impact of the aesthetic effects of the Buddhist gesture symbol on Chinese people’s subjective happiness through sequential mediators of life satisfaction and the perceived religiosity. The significance of this study is threefold. Firstly, it aims to enrich the current academic understanding of the religion-informed subjective well-being by introducing a new determinant of the Buddhist symbols. Secondly, the current study investigates the mechanism of how Buddhist symbols could influence happiness by analyzing the sequential mediating roles of religiosity and life satisfaction. Thirdly, this study empirically examines the topic in the context of China to confirm and underpin the theoretical relationship between Buddhism and subjective well-being in relevant research, which has previously focused on Western culture. Our results indicated that the aesthetic perception of the Buddhist gesture symbol positively influenced perceived happiness and life satisfaction. In addition, perceived religiosity and life satisfaction sequentially mediated the perceived happiness after seeing the Buddhist gesture symbol. Our findings contribute to the current academic understanding of religious symbols and their impacts on subjective well-being.