Religious Exiting and Social Networks: Computer Simulations of Religious/Secular Pluralism

Statistical models attempting to predict who will disaffiliate from religions have typically accounted for less than 15% of the variation in religious affiliations, suggesting that we have only a partial understanding of this vital social process. Using agent-based simulations in three “artificial societies” (one predominantly religious; one predominantly secular; and one in between), we demonstrate that worldview pluralism within one’s neighborhood and family social networks can be a significant predictor of religious (dis)affiliation but in pluralistic societies worldview diversity is less important and, instead, people move toward worldview neutrality. Our results suggest that there may be two phases in religious disaffiliation: (1) the early adopters initially disaffiliate regardless of social support, and subsequently (2) disaffiliation spreads as support for it within local social networks widens and it appears more acceptable. An important next step is for sociologists to confirm or correct the theoretical findings of this model using real-world socialnetwork data, which will require overcoming the measurement difficulties involved in estimating each individual’s degree of local network pluralism.publishedVersio

Faith, Christianity, and Non-Affiliation in the United States

Rates of religious non-affiliation continue to rise in the United States, with roughly 20% of Americans reporting no identification with any church or religious group. Generally, scholars have assumed these religious "nones" were atheists or agnostics with an active dislike of religious faith. This study explores the demographic, family background, political and moral worldview variation among a large sample of non-affiliates using various statistical regression analyses. Additionally, using a novel coding scheme, non-affiliates were modeled according to their self-reported levels of religiosity and spirituality, revealing further differentiation within this subpopulation. Results suggest that "nones" are not homogenously atheist or agnostic and that they likely vary in terms of their moral worldview and their political attitudes towards the family, among other things

Religious Exiting and Social Networks: Computer Simulations of Religious/Secular Pluralism

Statistical models attempting to predict who will disaffiliate from religions have typically accounted for less than 15% of the variation in religious affiliations, suggesting that we have only a partial understanding of this vital social process. Using agent-based simulations in three “artificial societies” (one predominantly religious; one predominantly secular; and one in between), we demonstrate that worldview pluralism within one’s neighborhood and family social networks can be a significant predictor of religious (dis)affiliation but in pluralistic societies worldview diversity is less important and, instead, people move toward worldview neutrality. Our results suggest that there may be two phases in religious disaffiliation: (1) the early adopters initially disaffiliate regardless of social support, and subsequently (2) disaffiliation spreads as support for it within local social networks widens and it appears more acceptable. An important next step is for sociologists to confirm or correct the theoretical findings of this model using real-world socialnetwork data, which will require overcoming the measurement difficulties involved in estimating each individual’s degree of local network pluralism.publishedVersio