New Study Shows That Americans Lie About How Often They Really Go to Church

[cleanhippie]

In a study to be unveiled just hours from now, brilliantly titled “I Know What You Did Last Sunday,” the Public Religion Research Institute shows that Americans are lying their asses off when it comes to admitting how often they go to church.

How do they know? Researchers conducted two types of surveys — one over the phone and one online — in which they asked the same questions about going to church and belief in God. When participants had to provide answers to a human being over the phone, they were much more likely to inflate their church attendance numbers. And when they’re in front of a computer, they’re more likely to admit that they rarely, if ever, go to church.

The degree to which Americans over-report their religious participation varies considerably by religious affiliation. Among religious groups, Catholics and white mainline Protestants are more likely than white evangelical Protestants to over-report their levels of religious participation. When interviewed by telephone, fewer than 3-in-10 (28%) white mainline Protestants report that they seldom or never attend religious services, compared to 45% in the self-administered online survey.

Catholics are less than half as likely to report seldom or never attending religious services when responding to a telephone versus online survey (15% vs. 33%). Among white evangelical Protestants, the differences between modes are less stark: 9% report they seldom or never attend religious services when speaking with a live interviewer, compared to 17% who report the same in a self-administered survey. Among black Protestants, the differences between modes are also not as glaring. Only 14% of black Protestants report seldom or never attending on a telephone survey, compared to nearly one-quarter (24%) on the online survey.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2014/05/16/new-study-shows-that-americans-lie-about-how-often-they-really-go-to-church/

[yeoman6987]

1. I think people who answer the phone are older population who probably do go to Church regularly

The on-line folks tend to be the younger folks who don't go to church as often or at all. A lot of people don't go back to church until they have children after they leave home from the parents when they went often.

[cleanhippie]

2. I think the important question that arises from this is "Why do people lie about going to church?"

I think that it's because of the social stigma that comes with being thought of as a non-christian in this country.

[yeoman6987]

3. Could be very possible.

[Rod Beauvex]

4. No "possible" to it.

Social stigma is exactly the problem, at least in the redder places.

[Warren Stupidity]

5. a good poll will draw from a representative sample of the population.

[rug]

6. People lie about voting.

People lie about sex.

People lie.

[kwassa]

7. This is not news. Real attendance rates are lower than that.

George Gallup always over-reported church attendance, because people told George's interviewers what they wanted to hears. Galllup has often reported about 40% of Americans attend church on Sundays.

Other surveys that were simply time-studies of how people used their time showed that in actuality only about 20% of Americans attend services on Sundays. Some studies come up with percentages that are less than that.

What Hadaway and Marler, along with Mark Chaves, author of the "National Congregations Study," discovered was at play is what researchers call "the halo effect" — the difference between what people tell pollsters and what people actually do. Americans tend to over-report socially desirable behavior like voting and attending church and under-report socially undesirable behavior like drinking.

http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/139575-7-startling-facts-an-up-close-look-at-church-attendance-in-america.html

[daleo]

8. Social desirability bias

People tend to bend the truth towards what they consider the prevailing social norms to be. This has long been known in social science and is taught in any decent methods course.