What is the relationship between frequency of church attendance, voting, and trust? My analysis shows that frequency of church attendance has a positive correlation with voting in elections and trusting a general person. As frequency of church attendance decreases over time, the difference of these variables between frequent church-goers and those that do not attend religious services decreases. These findings reinforce previous research of attendance’s effect on voting and support Campbell’s idea that homogenous communities increase civic engagement, most likely by developing strong social norms when attending church. These also support Putnam’s idea that religions exhibit bridging social capital and his finding that generalized trust is decreasing. Knowing these relationships, sociologists can further research these topics. Theorizing how norms are internalized in churches may also contribute to understanding civic engagement and church’s role in adolescence. To campaign strategists, studying the nature of how church attendance affects voting may offer additional insights to general voter mobilization
My first figure is a graph that presents the difference in likelihood of voting between people who say they go to church weekly and people who say they never attend church. Church-goers who attend weeklyhave a higher likelihood of voting over this time period.
My second graph shows results of a logit regression estimating the relationship between religious identity, frequency of church attendance, and social trust. Identifying as Jewish is associated with increased social trust. Identifying as Catholic does not seem to impact social trust. The effect of being Protestant on social trust is negative but not statistically significant. The Frequency of church attendance also increases social trust, even when controlling for religious affiliation.