Saturday, May 17, 2014

Not quite so devout

A study with the cheeky name "I know what you did last Sunday" has confirmed what is widely known anecdotally - that Americans tend to overreport their religious activities. The Public Religion Research Institute asked two statistically similar samples of American the same questions about attendance at worship services - but one half responded to an internet poll and the other to a phone interview. There are doubtless questions about the reliability of either set of results, but PRRI seems to have decisively shown a disparity.

I can hear some students at my college (and some faculty) cry "hypocrites!" but I think there's more going on here.