Salvation
Witch trials
Peter Leeson & Jacob Russ
Economic Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
We argue that the great age of European witch trials reflected non-price competition between the Catholic and Protestant churches for religious market share in confessionally contested parts of Christendom. Analyses of new data covering more than 43,000 people tried for witchcraft across 21 European countries over a period of five-and-a-half centuries, and more than 400 early modern European Catholic-Protestant conflicts, support our theory. More intense religious-market contestation led to more intense witch-trial activity. And, compared to religious-market contestation, the factors that existing hypotheses claim were important for witch-trial activity - weather, income, and state capacity - were not.
Unbuckling the Bible Belt: A State-Level Analysis of Religious Factors and Google Searches for Porn
Andrew Whitehead & Samuel Perry
Journal of Sex Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
While the link between individual religious characteristics and pornography consumption is well established, relatively little research has considered how the wider religious context may influence pornography use. Exceptions in the literature to date have relied on relatively broad, subjective measures of religious commitment, largely ignoring issues of religious belonging, belief, or practice. This study moves the conversation forward by examining how a variety of state-level religious factors predict Google searches for the term porn, net of relevant sociodemographic and ideological controls. Our multivariate findings indicate that higher percentages of Evangelical Protestants, theists, and biblical literalists in a state predict higher frequencies of searching for porn, as do higher church attendance rates. Conversely, higher percentages of religiously unaffiliated persons in a state predict lower frequencies of searching for porn. Higher percentages of total religious adherents, Catholics, or mainline Protestants in a state are unrelated to searching for porn with controls in place. Contrary to recent research, our analyses also show that higher percentages of political conservatives in a state predicted lower frequencies of porn searches. Our findings support theories that more salient, traditional religious influences in a state may influence residents - whether religious or not - toward more covert sexual experiences.
Plausibility Structures, Status Threats, and the Establishment of Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Centers
Rory McVeigh, Bryant Crubaugh & Kevin Estep
American Journal of Sociology, March 2017, Pages 1533-1571
Abstract:
The authors offer a theoretical framework that resolves conflicting ideas found in extant theory pertaining to moral reform movements. The framework focuses on how community attributes, particularly the relative size of populations affiliated with supportive belief systems, shape moral reform activism by affecting both the convictions and motivations of potential supporters. The theory is applied in an analysis of county-level variation in the presence of antiabortion pregnancy centers (PCs). The authors find that the proportion of individuals affiliated with Roman Catholicism or evangelical denominations has a curvilinear relationship with PC establishment, reflecting the way in which group size can affirm convictions that are the lifeblood of moral reform but can also reduce motivation to act when the size of the group surpasses majority status. The authors also find that PCs are more likely to be found in communities where gender roles are relatively egalitarian.
The Protestant Ethic and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Religious Minorities in the Former Holy Roman Empire
Luca Nunziata & Lorenzo Rocco
European Journal of Political Economy, forthcoming
Abstract:
We investigate the effect of Protestantism versus Catholicism on the decision to become an entrepreneur in former Holy Roman Empire regions. Our research design exploits religious minorities' strong attachment to religious ethic and the predetermined historical determination of religious minorities' geographical distribution in the 1500s as a result of the "cuius regio eius religio" (whose realm, his religion) rule. We find that today Protestantism increases the probability to be an entrepreneur by around 5 percentage points with respect to Catholicism, a result that survives a battery of robustness checks. We explicit test the assumptions underlying the identification strategy and provide an extensive testing of their validity by making use of several European datasets.
Shari'a Law and Economic Growth
Gabriele Lattanzio
University of Oklahoma Working Paper, April 2017
Abstract:
I use the synthetic control method to identify the causal effect of Shari'a Law on a country's economic growth. I compare GDP per capita levels for Mauritania to a synthetic counterfactual, finding that, relative to the constructed control, the treated country experiences a large wealth loss. In particular, if Mauritania would not have introduced Shari'a Law within its legal system in 1980, it would have had an 8.69% higher GDP per capita, as computed in 1991. To generalize these results, I study the effects of the introduction of an ornamental constitution including a Shari'a as a Source of Legislation clause on Saudi Arabia's economic growth. Baseline results hold, providing support for the generalizability of these findings. All in all, this paper identifies for the first time the existence of large economic costs associated with the institutionalization of Shari'a Law within a legal system, which should be carefully considered by countries experiencing a process of political Islamization.
When God's (not) needed: Spotlight on how belief in divine control influences goal commitment
Jamel Khenfer et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, May 2017, Pages 117-123
Abstract:
People regularly set goals, but often fail to remain committed to them. In particular, people's commitment to their goals flags when their self-efficacy is low - when they doubt their ability to bring about their desired outcomes through their actions. We propose that when people feel low self-efficacy, reminders of external forces that ensure contingency in the world can help them restore their goal commitment. Moreover, we propose that one such external force is a powerful, interventionist God, and thus that reminders of a powerful God can help restore people's goal commitment when they feel low self-efficacy. In Study 1, we manipulated self-efficacy and measured religiosity. More religious people were more committed to their goals - a facilitating effect - but only when we had first made them feel low self-efficacy. In Study 2, we manipulated both self-efficacy and the salience of religious belief in a controlling vs. creating God. When we reminded participants of their beliefs in a controlling God, we again observed a facilitating effect when we also made them feel low in self-efficacy. Their beliefs in a creating God, in contrast, had no effect. In Study 3, we used a different experimental paradigm, and found additional support for the facilitating effect at low self-efficacy while providing evidence of mechanism.
We are not alone: The meaning motive, religiosity, and belief in extraterrestrial intelligence
Clay Routledge, Andrew Abeyta & Christina Roylance
Motivation and Emotion, April 2017, Pages 135-146
Abstract:
We tested the proposals that paranormal beliefs about extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) are motivated, in part, by the need for meaning and that this existential motive helps explain the inverse relationship between religiosity and ETI beliefs. In Study 1, we experimentally establish that the motive to find meaning in life increases ETI beliefs. In Study 2, we replicate previous research demonstrating that low religiosity is associated with greater ETI beliefs. In Studies 3-4 we tested and found support for a model linking low religiosity to low presence of meaning, high search for meaning, and greater ETI beliefs. In all, our findings offer a motivational account of why people endorse paranormal beliefs about intelligent alien beings observing and influencing the lives of humans.
Is the Tea Party a "Religious" Movement? Religiosity in the Tea Party versus the Religious Right
Ruth Braunstein & Malaena Taylor
Sociology of Religion, Spring 2017, Pages 33-59
Abstract:
Since the Tea Party Movement (TPM) emerged, observers have drawn parallels between this movement and the Religious Right (RR). This article deepens our understanding of this relationship by providing a detailed analysis of religiosity in the TPM versus the RR. We find that compared to the RR, the TPM mobilized a religiously heterogeneous membership. Although roughly half of TPM members were also members of the RR, the other half of this movement reported lower levels of religious orthodoxy and commitment, and included relatively large numbers of nonreligious individuals. Yet a majority of TPM members, including disproportionately high numbers of nonreligious members, believed that America is a Christian nation. Our findings complicate the notion that religious "nones" are predictably liberal and that Christian nationalist views are necessarily linked to Christian identity, instead raising the possibility that Christian-America rhetoric can operate - even for some nonreligious individuals - as symbolic boundary-work that marks certain groups as political "others."
Marriage Gap in Christians and Muslims
Martin Fieder et al.
Journal of Biosocial Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
For modern Western societies with a regime of monogamy, it has recently been demonstrated that the socioeconomic status of men is positively associated with being or having been married. This study aims to compare marriage patterns (if a person has been married at least once) for cultures with a tradition of monogamy and polygyny. As no worldwide data on polygyny exist, religion was used as a proxy for monogamy (Christians) vs polygyny (Muslims). The analyses were based on 2000-2011 census data from 39 countries worldwide for 52,339,594 men and women, controlling for sex, sex ratio, age, education, migration within the last 5 years and employment. Overall, a higher proportion of Muslims were married compared with Christians, but the difference in the fraction of married men compared with married women at a certain age (the 'marriage gap') was much more pronounced in Muslims than in Christians, i.e. compared with Christians, a substantially higher proportion of Muslim women than men were married up to the age of approximately 31 years. As expected for a tradition of polygyny, the results indicate that the socioeconomic threshold for entering marriage is higher for Muslim than Christian men, and Muslim women in particular face a negative effect of socioeconomic status on the probability of ever being married. The large 'marriage gap' at a certain age in Muslim societies leads to high numbers of married women and unmarried young men, and may put such polygenic societies under pressure.
Religious Representation and Animal Welfare in the U.S. Senate
Elizabeth Oldmixon
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, forthcoming
Abstract:
Does religion affect legislative behavior among U.S. senators? Scholars have established this relationship on issues closely associated with evangelical Christianity, but it is unclear how far the relationship extends. Focusing on animal welfare, this article tests the theory of personal representation and provides an expansion of the religion and legislative behavior literature. Humane Society scores (2005-2014) are regressed on senator religion, party, sex, and several constituency factors. The analysis demonstrates that religion shapes animal welfare activity. Relative to mainline Protestant senators, Mormon senators are less supportive of animal welfare, while Catholics, Jews, and black Protestants are more supportive. Some of this is due to senator religion, but it is also a reflection of state-level factors, including state ideology and religious constituencies.
The Structure of Political Divisions Among American Jews
Laurence Kotler-Berkowitz
Contemporary Jewry, April 2017, Pages 5-27
Abstract:
This paper examines the current structural basis of political divisions among American Jews. Theoretically, the paper is situated in the well-established scholarly tradition of understanding political behavior as rooted in social structural location, with accompanying variations in political cohesion and political division across social groups. Empirically, the paper utilizes data from the Pew Research Center's 2013 Survey of US Jews to measure and analyze how social divisions based on religion, immigrant status, age, education, income, gender, marital status, region and race are translated into political divisions with respect to both US and Israeli politics. The findings show that religious divisions among American Jews yield the most significant and consistent political divisions across the US and Israeli political measures. Other social cleavages among American Jews also produce political divisions, but to a smaller and less consistent extent than religion.
Drawing on Religion in the Desistance Process: Paying Attention to Race and Ethnicity
Richard Stansfield
Criminal Justice and Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Religion is important in the lives of many ex-offenders. This study uses data from the Pathways to Desistance Study data set to examine the impact of religiosity on criminal desistance and drug use among delinquent White, Black, and Hispanic youth. Results from mixed-effects longitudinal analyses revealed that religiosity was a significant predictor of lower criminal offending and substance use for White youth postconviction, controlling for changes in employment, social support, and delinquent peer association. Although religiosity was associated with lower substance use among Black youth, it was not associated with lower criminal offending among Black or Hispanic youth. We discuss the implications of our findings for research and policy, particularly the need for resources.
Religious Involvement and the Black-White Paradox in Mental Health
Dawne Mouzon
Race and Social Problems, March 2017, Pages 63-78
Abstract:
Despite demonstrating poorer physical health profiles, African Americans experience similar or more favorable mental health than whites, an unexpected pattern given their relatively disadvantaged social status. Given higher levels of religious involvement, a predominant attribution for the black-white paradox in mental health is differential religious involvement (stronger levels of religiosity among African Americans) but little research explicitly tests this assumption. Differential religious importance may also explain the mental health paradox, given past findings that religion is a stronger aspect in the lives of African Americans relative to whites. Using data from the National Survey of American Life, I investigate the black-white mental health paradox in depressive symptoms across three dimensions (spanning 18 measures) of religious involvement-organizational religious involvement, non-organizational religious involvement, and church-based social support. Specifically, I test whether black-white differences in either religious involvement or the importance of religiosity can explain mental health advantage of African Americans. Despite remarkably higher levels of religious involvement among African Americans relative to whites, these differences do not explain the mental health paradox. There was also no evidence supporting the differential impact of religious involvement argument. Future research should explore both positive and negative coping, in addition to the role of intersectionality when studying this unexpected trend.