For God (or) country: The hydraulic relation between government instability and belief in religious sources of control.
-- Aaron C. Kay et. al., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 99(5), Nov 2010, 725-739.
Past research demonstrates that, when personal control is threatened, people defend external systems of control, such as God and government. This theoretical perspective also suggests that belief in God and support for governmental systems, although seemingly disparate, will exhibit a hydraulic relationship with one another. Using both experimental and longitudinal designs in Eastern and Western cultures, the authors demonstrate that experimental manipulations or naturally occurring events (e.g., electoral instability) that lower faith in one of these external systems (e.g., the government) lead to subsequent increases in faith in the other (e.g., God).