In 2008, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama got himself into trouble by saying ‘bitter’ voters ‘cling to guns or religion’ in response to hard times. Obama later apologized and recanted the statement, but new research suggests he may not have been entirely wrong.

People do turn to spirituality after a bad day, according to a study published online Aug. 1 in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. And good news for spiritual folks, it works.

‘We find that having a really spiritual day, committing to a power higher than yourself, carefully considering a purpose larger than yourself, it ends up leading to a lot of well-being,’ said study researcher Todd Kashdan, a psychologist at George Mason University in Virginia. ‘We find profound levels of meaning in life, greater positive emotions, less negative emotions, higher self-esteem.’

Spirituality and happiness

A number of studies have found links between spirituality and happiness. A sense of spirituality, defined as the search for the sacred to differentiate it from organized religion, has even been linked to young women having more sex, perhaps because they feel a greater sense of interconnectedness and intimacy with others.

But most researchers have looked at the link between spirituality in a broad sense, with surveys […]