The present vignette study examined the relations between attributions for uncontrollable, extremely negative events with religiousness, locus of control, belief in a just world, and self-esteem among a religiously heterogeneous sample of 329 college students (aged 18–58 yrs). More religious subjects made greater attributions to God's will, God's love, and evil spiritual forces, whereas less
... [Show full abstract] religious subjects made more attributions to chance and forces of nature. For the subset of Christians (N = 239), a similar pattern was evident as more conservative Christians rated religious attributions higher and less conservative Christians rated naturalistic attributions higher. Religiousness was a better predictor of attributions than locus of control or belief in a just/difficult world. Self-esteem was not correlated with any of the attribution factors. These findings are discussed, stressing the importance of considering religiousness as a factor in future attribution research.