Easy to Believe
To hell with the devil: Lingering negative religious beliefs among religious dones
Daryl Van Tongeren et al.
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent research on religious deidentification reveals that features of religion persist after deidentification-a phenomenon known as religious residue. However, heretofore, little work has examined the lingering effects of some of the more negative features of religion that those leaving religion may quickly be motivated to discard. We conducted a preregistered study (N = 925) to examine the lingering cognitive patterns of religion among currently religious, formerly religious (i.e., religious dones), and never religious individuals, including negative religious beliefs, superstitious thinking, pattern detection, and religiously taboo behavior. We found evidence for religious residue among negative religious beliefs, wherein religious dones maintained lingering beliefs in negative aspects of religion, such as hell and the devil, relative to never religious individuals, and these beliefs were associated with illusory pattern detection, superstitious beliefs, and greater likelihood to engage in religiously taboo behavior. Religious dones were likely to maintain some vestiges of negative religious belief, such as in hell and the devil, even among those who no longer believe in God. We discuss the implications of persistent negative religious beliefs among religious dones.
Externality and taboo: Resolving the Judaic pig puzzle
Peter Leeson, Vincent Geloso & Nicholas Snow
Rationality and Society, forthcoming
Abstract:
Judaic law famously bans pigs. For millennia, scholars have wondered why. This paper uses the economics of property rights to resolve the puzzle. We argue that the Judaic pig ban was an instrument for internalizing swine externalities. Free ranging pigs in search of sustenance trespass on agricultural landowners' property, wreaking destruction. Activities that foster such pigs thus create negative externalities that can cripple agricultural economies. When the expected cost of swine externalities becomes large, internalization becomes worthwhile: lawmakers with a vested interest in the agricultural economy ban activities that foster free ranging pigs. That is what transpired in ancient Judah, where lawmakers were priests whose livelihoods depended on agriculture, where all swine ranged freely, and where the expected cost of swine externalities surged during the late Iron Age. Lawmakers invoked God to enjoin involvement with pigs because a supernatural injunction was cheaper to enforce than a natural one: in a land of faithful Hebrews, Yahweh's swine prohibition enforced itself. The Judaic pig ban's features are consistent with pig bans recently adopted by US states such as Montana, which everyone agrees are instruments for internalizing swine externalities.
What Makes Politicians "Religious"? How Identity Congruence Shapes Religious Evaluations
Samuel Perry & Joshua Davis
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, forthcoming
Abstract:
How do Americans evaluate politicians' religiosity? We theorize extra-religious "identity congruence," the perceived correspondence between others' group identities and our own, will powerfully shape evaluations. We test this expectation using data from two large, nationally representative surveys that ask Americans to rate the religiosity of prominent politicians. Consistent with our theory, the strongest predictors of how Americans rate politicians' religiosity are their congruence on party identification and ideological identity as well as expected alignments with racial identity and Christian nationalism. Respondents' religious characteristics are relatively weak predictors. And these trends hold regardless of Americans' knowledge of leaders' professed religious identity. Patterns are consistent with our theory even when we split samples by party. When we compare ratings between politicians who are widely regarded as irreligious to those who are regarded as conventionally religious, partisan congruence and racial identity largely mitigate the religious advantage of the latter. Racial identity also moderates congruence on key factors. Finally, identity congruence on party, ideology, and Christian nationalism follows expected patterns even among secular Americans for whom "religious" less intuitively implies "my group." In a time of growing identity-alignment along partisan, ideological, racial, and religious lines, extra-religious "identity congruence" powerfully shapes how Americans evaluate politicians' religiosity.
Legalized Same-Sex Marriage and Coming Out in America: Evidence from Catholic Seminaries
Avner Seror & Rohit Ticku
Chapman University Working Paper, July 2023
Abstract:
We study the effect of the legalization of same-sex marriage on coming out in the United States. We overcome data limitations by inferring coming out decisions through a revealed preference mechanism. We exploit data on enrollment in seminary studies for the Catholic priesthood, hypothesizing that Catholic priests' vow of celibacy may act as a cover for gay men who do not wish to come out. Using a difference-in-differences design that exploits variation in the timing of legalization across states, we find that city-level enrollment in priestly studies fell by about 12% exclusively in states adopting the reform. The celibacy norm appears to be driving our results since we find no effect on enrollment in ministry studies that do not require celibacy. We also find that coming out decisions, as inferred through enrollment in priestly studies, are primarily affected by the presence of gay communities and by prevailing social attitudes toward gays. We explain our findings with a stylized model.
Did Gender Egalitarianism Weaken Religiosity in Baby Boom Women? A Developmental-Historical Approach
Merril Silverstein et al.
Sociology of Religion, forthcoming
Abstract:
This investigation used long-term longitudinal survey data from baby boomer women to identify whether strengthening gender role egalitarianism in early adulthood predicted declines in religious service attendance and religious intensity in later life. The aging of this cohort coincided with dramatic societal shifts in gender values and religiosity. The data were derived from 350 women participating in the Longitudinal Study of Generations, a study originally fielded in 1971 of families living in Southern California. Respondents were initially assessed in their late teens and early 20s and followed up to their early-to-mid 60s. Using growth curve modeling, we linked the change in egalitarian gender attitudes from 1971 to 1988 to a change in religiosity from 1994 to 2016. Women who became more egalitarian in their gender attitudes experienced sharper declines in religious intensity, but not in religious attendance in the period studied. Controlling for life-course transitions did not alter these results. The findings are discussed in terms of the connection between two asynchronous social changes occurring over the lives of women in a uniquely positioned birth cohort.
Religion and well-being: What is the magnitude and the practical significance of the relationship?
Gabriele Prati
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, forthcoming
Abstract:
The idea that religion is important for people's well-being is widespread in social sciences. Current empirical evidence supporting this idea is largely based on research focusing on statistical significance. In this study, the strengths of associations between religious indicators and subjective and psychological well-being were investigated. In the first study, data from the European Value Study and the World Value Survey involving 645.249 participants and 115 countries were used. In the second study, data were taken from three longitudinal investigations: the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe, and the Midlife in the United States. Multilevel analyses revealed that the explained variance of the effects of religious predictors at Level 1 and Level 2 on subjective well-being (i.e., life satisfaction and happiness) was very small or negligible (Study 1). The effect size estimates of the prospective associations between religious predictors and later psychological and subjective well-being were very small or negligible (Study 2). Taken together, the results of the current investigation suggest that the direct effect of religion on well-being does not seem to have practical relevance. Although religion plays an essential role in the lives of many individuals, the results of the present study call into question the practical significance and utility of using religion per se for the prediction of well-being.
Changes in Politics and Religiosity Among Students at a Protestant University
Brandon Brown et al.
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, forthcoming
Abstract:
College is a setting and time of profound change in the lives of emerging adults. This change can include shifts in identity related to politics and religion. Given widespread attention to the alignment of religious people with conservative politics and less religious people with liberal politics (i.e., the "God Gap"), we ask: do college students who become politically liberal lose their religion in the process? Using longitudinal panel data, this study examines changes in political identity and religiosity among students at a Protestant university. Findings reveal changes in students' politics align with changes in public and private religious behaviors, certainty in belief, agreement with core tenets of the Christian faith, faith maturity, and closeness to God. Whereas students who become more politically conservative increase their religiosity, the inverse is true for those whose politics become more liberal in college.
Religious affiliation and debt among U.S. households
Tristen Clifton, Mackenzie Brewer & Laura Upenieks
Social Science Research, September 2023
Abstract:
Religion has been shown to have both a direct and indirect role in shaping personal values, especially pertaining to money and wealth accumulation. Existing research establishes a strong relationship between religious affiliation and wealth attainment. However, previous scholarship has largely ignored the link between religious affiliation and debt, an important yet overlooked indicator of total net worth. To address this gap, we utilize data from the 2017 wave of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and examine how religious affiliation is associated with two forms of household debt: credit card and mortgage debt. Findings from a series of logistic regression models indicate that Black Protestants have the lowest rates of both credit card and mortgage debt and Hispanic/Latinx Catholics have comparably low rates of credit card debt relative to Conservative Protestants. KHB decomposition analyses reveal that race/ethnicity explain some of the relationship between a Black Protestant or Hispanic/Latinx Catholic religious affiliation and household debt. While our study is the first to document the link between religious affiliation and debt profiles of Americans, we would encourage future research to explore how other elements of religiosity -- long acknowledged by sociologists to affect wealth and social status -- influence different types of debt accumulation in nuanced and meaningful ways.