So, I'm researching religious demographics and correlating them with personality traits for a research project, and I came across more info on the Pew Research study that was in the news a while back, when it made headlines that the religious "nones" group was growing.

I found the page for the Mormons that they sampled, and these charts are kind of interesting. It gives an idea of how mormons self reported on several issues that may be of interest to those here on RfM.

Keep in mind, the sample sizes are relatively small, so I'm not sure how well these trends generalize across the country. But I enjoyed looking at them and thought y'all might, too.

http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/mormon/

If the results shown on all the charts come from the same sample, then it's a very skewed sample. I reached this conclusion when I got to the chart that said that 77% of the sampled group attend a religious meeting at least once a week.

But then it makes the 3% who admitted that the were 'living with a partner', as in not married to that partner, also a weird result.

But for sure, that 77% of the sample claim to attend a meeting at least once a week... What planet are they on?

Keep in mind these are *self-reported* numbers, which are notoriously unreliable -- and the results suggest why they're notoriously unreliable.

Say you're an inactive but still sort-of-believing mormon. You get a call from Pew Research. They ask your religion, you say mormon. They ask how often you attend church...you know how often you're SUPPOSED to attend, so you say you go most of the time to "look good" for mormons, rather than be honest.

People also nearly always self-report as "very happy" when asked how happy they are, even if they're miserable. Because they don't want to admit to someone they're miserable.

That's why self-reported stats are always to be taken with a grain of salt. Or two. Or ten.

Yep. Every self-report measure such as surveys and questionnaires will be subject to reactivity bias and social desirability bias. However, I still find it interesting. Esoeciallly when comparing different religions and the "nines". Even though it may not be totally objective, it still gives useful info because if people are still reporting what they think they "should" report , that's also telling information about prevailing social norms and how much they still hold sway. Especially if self reported data that's subject to the social desirability bias differs from actual behavior.

"Nones ". Not nines. Freakin autocorrect.

:)

Two interesting (meaning 'odd') things to me in that data:

The high # of mormons (61%!) that claimed to "meditate" regularly...I've never met a meditating mormon.

The other, the fairly high numbers who either said they didn't believe in god or weren't sure. Um...really?

I think mormons confuse meditation with 'plays video games'...

Hie - I agree. I was shocked at the meditation #s, too. Meditation was what led me out of the church. It was much more of what I'd been hoping to find in religion. A truly calm, transcendental state. However, in the few months before I left, while I was still trying to get up the guts to leave, I'd bring up the few scriptures that I saw that referenced people meditating in GD class. It always brought lots of uncomfortable silence. And my mom told me it was a satanic practice.

But- I wonder if it has to do with this new movement in Utah with the whole "Christ-centered Energy Healing" movement. It really seems to be gaining traction. Many of my friends are buying into it. And they like the meditation aspect of things.

Too bad there's no way to determine what percentage were giving the answers they thought the church would want them to.

Philosphy and common sense overwhelmed by religion more than 2-to-1. Says alot.

For a group that says government does more harm than good they certainly seem to be in favor of heavy government regulation of the minutia of life where they have political control.

Yes. The faith related question %s suggest to me that only active mormons self-identify as belonging to the religion. Inactives and disaffected mormons don't self-identify.

Interesting.

I found this very peculiar:

95% believe in heaven while only 62% believe in hell (nobody plans on going to hell, but we all think we are special).

64% believe that giving welfare to the poor is BAD! Just a guess but maybe they would rather see more malls built, more cattle ranches selling burgers for McDonalds?

36% think homos should be excepted. Wow! no wonder the bretheren are worried that people are getting confused.

poopstone - I thought the same thing. I was surprised to see such "open" acceptance in the voting. If I had to guess, I'd say that more and more mormons now know someone - either friend or family - that identifies as LGBT - and when you know someone, it changes the dialogue. It's personal all of a sudden.

I'm surprised like Hie said earlier, though - people tend to report in a way that skews their opinions. Most people will moderate responses so they're socially acceptable. Is this an example of the LGBT movement becoming societally acceptable enough that pain incurred from society if you're against it is worse than the pain incurred by the church if you're against the church stance?

I don't know. But it was interesting, to be sure.