https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/10/american-religious-preference/ Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:35:20 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/10/american-religious-preference/#comment-530774 Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:35:20 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/10/american-religious-preference/#comment-530774 Since the polls weren’t done by the same organization, I wouldn’t read too much into the fluctuations of the ‘no answer’ option – that’s a figure that’s bound to fluctuate between different pollsters, since a lot of it depends on the perceived trustworthiness of the pollster (which is affected by things like the pollster’s name and the age and appearance of the interviewers)and whether the interviewers are told to ‘press for’ an answer (e.g. asking a second time for confirmation). Only 0.8 % not answering seems in the Pew poll seems like an extremely good figure, in that regard.

]]> https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/10/american-religious-preference/#comment-530773 Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:17:04 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/10/american-religious-preference/#comment-530773 This could be a matter of people changing what they feel comfortable saying.

]]> https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/10/american-religious-preference/#comment-530772 Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:55:39 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/10/american-religious-preference/#comment-530772 Those that refused to say, me thinks they be a coven of witches in Oklahoama and are afeared of being burnt at the stake …

]]> https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/10/american-religious-preference/#comment-530771 Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:30:53 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/10/american-religious-preference/#comment-530771 A couple of comments:
1. The differences between 2001 and 2007 don’t look that great: they could just be sampling variability. What are the standard errors/margins of error/sample sizes.
2. Were all three surveys done in the same way? i.e. same sampling strategy, same questions etc. This could have an effect on the results. Indeed, the methods for the analysis could cause a change too.
3. Does the US census ask about religious identity? I couldn’t find anything on their site.

]]> https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/10/american-religious-preference/#comment-530770 Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:00:58 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/10/american-religious-preference/#comment-530770 Jackel: All excellent questions, some of which Genie deals with in the book IIRC.

]]> https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/10/american-religious-preference/#comment-530769 Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:49:36 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/10/american-religious-preference/#comment-530769 The percent of Other non-Christians more than doubled, while the percent reporting no religion almost doubled. I would like to see this in a scatter plot with years spaced to scale at the bottom. The gaps of 11 years and then 6 years make it harder to process the trends. It looks like most of the gains from 2001 to 2007 came from the Refuse to state category. I wonder if post 9/11 paranoia had anything to do with the large nuber not reporting in 2001.

]]>