smac97 Posted December 24, 2022 Posted December 24, 2022 Americans' views on 35 religious groups, organizations, and belief systems Quote A recent YouGov poll explores Americans' attitudes toward 35 religious groups, organizations, and belief systems. Belief systems that encompass the largest shares of Americans — including Christianity, Catholicism, and Protestantism — are among the ones the most Americans view favorably. Viewed least favorably are Satanism and Scientology. The poll asked 1,000 respondents whether they viewed a random sample of 17 of the 35 religions or groups very favorably, somewhat favorably, neither favorably nor unfavorably, somewhat unfavorably, or very unfavorably; respondents also could select "not sure" instead of any of these. To produce a net score for each religion or group, we subtracted the share who said they view each one unfavorably from the share who said they view it favorably. Is 1,000 respondents a sufficient sampling? Just curious. Quote Using this metric, Christianity is by far the most highly favored belief system, receiving a net score of +34. Protestantism, the next most popular, falls 19 points behind Christianity at +15. Just a few points behind Protestantism is the Amish (+11), Judaism (+11), Buddhism (+10), and Catholicism (+10). (This method tends to give higher positive or negative scores to things that are more widely known, since people who are unsure or have neither a favorable or unfavorable opinion don't count either way toward net scores; that accounts for some of Christianity's big lead over the rest.) "Christianity" has "a net score of +34." Hold that thought for a moment. Quote Which religions are viewed least favorably? Tied for last place are Satanism (-49) and the Church of Scientology (-49). Other groups that receive net negative ratings are Jehovah's Witnesses (-31), the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (-27), Islam (-24), Christian Science (-22), and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (-21). Belief systems that are viewed favorably and unfavorably by a roughly equal share of Americans include Pentecostalism, the Assemblies of God, Hinduism, and the Mennonite Church. A few thoughts: 1. The FLDS folks and all their terrible media coverage yields an unfavorable view of -27, and we are only 6 points more favorable (or less unfavorable) than that, at -21. 2. I wonder how much "guilt by association" is imputed to us by the commonality in names with the FLDS folks. 3. I am curious why the broad umbrella category of "Christianity" has such a high score (+34), while each of its constituent subparts gets substantially lower scores: Protestantism: 19 points lower (+15) Amish: 23 points lower (+11) Catholicism: 24 points lower (+10) Presbyterianism: 26 points lower (+8) Methodism / Church of God in Christ / Lutheranism: 29 points lower (+5) Anglicanism / The Episcopal Church: 31 points lower (+3) Eastern Orthodox: 32 points lower (+2) Mennonites: 33 points lower (+1) Assemblies of God: 34 points lower (+0) Pentecostalism: 34 points lower (-1) Southern Baptists: 39 points lower (-5) National Baptists: 40 points lower (-6) 7th Day Adventists: 46 points lower (-12) Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: 55 points lower (-21) Christian Science: 56 points lower (-22) FLDS: 61 points lower (-27) Jehovah's Witnesses: 65 points lower (-31) If my math is correct, the average score for these 20 subsets of Christianity is -2.85, as compared to the "+34" favorability rating for "Christianity" as a whole. That's . . . interesting. 4. Atheists score poorly, but still substantially better than the Latter-day Saints (-13 v. -21). 5. I wonder how much of this is attributable more to media and social media treatment of these groups, as compared to respondents actually knowing much about these groups, interacting with them, etc. This might explain why Falun Gong and Sikhism get mediocre scores (-10 and -8, respectively), while more well-known / prominent groups score notably worse (such as Islam, us, Scientologists, etc.). 6. I wonder why Jehovah's Witnesses (-31) score so poorly. 7. Here's a graphic that breaks things down a bit more: Interesting stuff. Thoughts? Thanks, -Smac 2
Calm Posted December 24, 2022 Posted December 24, 2022 (edited) 33 minutes ago, smac97 said: am curious why the broad umbrella category of "Christianity" has such a high score (+34), while each of its constituent subparts gets substantially lower scores: Maybe unorganized, individual religion is seen in more positive ways than organized. One can practice Christianity without belonging to a ‘subpart’. Edited December 24, 2022 by Calm 3
JAHS Posted December 24, 2022 Posted December 24, 2022 1 hour ago, smac97 said: Is 1,000 respondents a sufficient sampling? Just curious. That would only be 0.003% of the US population, so no it is not. 2
JAHS Posted December 24, 2022 Posted December 24, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, smac97 said: I am curious why the broad umbrella category of "Christianity" has such a high score (+34), while each of its constituent subparts gets substantially lower scores: People in their own individual faith may have stronger issues against beliefs of certain other faiths, but they are favorable to the idea of Christianity in general. Edited December 24, 2022 by JAHS 1
blackstrap Posted December 24, 2022 Posted December 24, 2022 This is a dumb poll. Poorly constructed . I did notice how many sects besides LDS are not considered ' Christian ' .
Popular Post The Nehor Posted December 24, 2022 Popular Post Posted December 24, 2022 2 hours ago, smac97 said: 6. I wonder why Jehovah's Witnesses (-31) score so poorly. When your only interaction with a group is them knocking on your door early morning on a Saturday your view tends to be negative. 5
Peppermint Patty Posted December 24, 2022 Posted December 24, 2022 41 minutes ago, The Nehor said: When your only interaction with a group is them knocking on your door early morning on a Saturday your view tends to be negative. Or leaving zucchini on your porch every few weeks. 2
Popular Post The Nehor Posted December 24, 2022 Popular Post Posted December 24, 2022 34 minutes ago, Peppermint Patty said: Or leaving zucchini on your porch every few weeks. Pretty sure that is a hate crime. 5
Pyreaux Posted December 24, 2022 Posted December 24, 2022 37 minutes ago, Peppermint Patty said: Or leaving zucchini on your porch every few weeks. I need to get on that JW visit list. I'd love free zucchine. 3
Peppermint Patty Posted December 24, 2022 Posted December 24, 2022 25 minutes ago, Pyreaux said: I need to get on that JW visit list. I'd love free zucchine. Just move to Utah. In the Spring and Summer you will have more zucchini on your porch than you can shake a stick at. 1
JAHS Posted December 24, 2022 Posted December 24, 2022 Just now, Peppermint Patty said: Just move to Utah. In the Spring and Summer you will have more zucchini on your porch than you can shake a stick at. The big ones make good door stops until they rot. 1
mrmarklin Posted December 24, 2022 Posted December 24, 2022 Is 1,000 respondents a sufficient sampling? Just curious. it may be. One does not necessarily need a sample size greater than this.
JustAnAustralian Posted December 25, 2022 Posted December 25, 2022 The third chart shows why things likely look the way they do. People that don't think religion is important don't have favourable views of religions. The survey[1] didn't say that it weighted for importance of religion. Pew found that in 2020, religion wasn't important to about a third of people [2] So straight up you have a large statistical bias against all the religions listed. [1] https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/v7tkzd5tem/poll_Favorability_of_Religions_20221122.pdf [2] https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/01/14/measuring-religion-in-pew-research-centers-american-trends-panel/ 4
rodheadlee Posted December 25, 2022 Posted December 25, 2022 If they divided it by State and by urban and rural and Suburban they would get a wholly different answer.
The Nehor Posted December 25, 2022 Posted December 25, 2022 2 minutes ago, rodheadlee said: If they divided it by State and by urban and rural and Suburban they would get a wholly different answer. What answer?
Popular Post BlueDreams Posted December 25, 2022 Popular Post Posted December 25, 2022 (edited) 8 hours ago, smac97 said: Americans' views on 35 religious groups, organizations, and belief systems Is 1,000 respondents a sufficient sampling? Just curious. It's decent. Sample sizes by nature don't need to be collosal. It has a error rate of +/- 3%, which isn't bad. 8 hours ago, smac97 said: "Christianity" has "a net score of +34." Hold that thought for a moment. A few thoughts: 1. The FLDS folks and all their terrible media coverage yields an unfavorable view of -27, and we are only 6 points more favorable (or less unfavorable) than that, at -21. Media coverage and general practices. There's not a really good way to sweeten up your most recent prophet being a child predator. I think they also suffer for being too extreme and isolated in a way that would leave a bad impression in general. 8 hours ago, smac97 said: 2. I wonder how much "guilt by association" is imputed to us by the commonality in names with the FLDS folks. Maybe a little. There's still people who assume we're polygamous, for example. But this fits other surveys I've seen about us as well. I think it's more about having a double negatives on impressions. most religions had at least one side having some positive regard to them. There's reasons "both sides" of the American landscape doesn't like us. Most "very religious" people are Christian in the US and likely hold negative assumptions about us ranging from a fraudulent faith to heretic to at best not fully xtian. Yes, that changes/lessens if they know us...but not all the time and it depends how they know us (missionary v neighbor for example). The not religious group also tends to have negative views about us ranging from conflict with our practices, positions we've taken, and media coverage of us that's usually not super flattering. 8 hours ago, smac97 said: 3. I am curious why the broad umbrella category of "Christianity" has such a high score (+34), while each of its constituent subparts gets substantially lower scores: Protestantism: 19 points lower (+15) Amish: 23 points lower (+11) Catholicism: 24 points lower (+10) Presbyterianism: 26 points lower (+8) Methodism / Church of God in Christ / Lutheranism: 29 points lower (+5) Anglicanism / The Episcopal Church: 31 points lower (+3) Eastern Orthodox: 32 points lower (+2) Mennonites: 33 points lower (+1) Assemblies of God: 34 points lower (+0) Pentecostalism: 34 points lower (-1) Southern Baptists: 39 points lower (-5) National Baptists: 40 points lower (-6) 7th Day Adventists: 46 points lower (-12) Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: 55 points lower (-21) Christian Science: 56 points lower (-22) FLDS: 61 points lower (-27) Jehovah's Witnesses: 65 points lower (-31) If my math is correct, the average score for these 20 subsets of Christianity is -2.85, as compared to the "+34" favorability rating for "Christianity" as a whole. That's . . . interesting. For one, the last 4-5 groups are usually not pictured when people picture "xtian." These range from more extreme practices to doctrinal differences from mainline xtianity. If you knock those off the christian list you then have a higher positive rating though likely not as high as general christian. I think this is more eaten by the "idk" percentage. Almost every other denom has the same negativity rate but a far larger neutral to idk response than to the general concept/religion of xtianity. It just means most aren't really familiar with the distinctions in these faiths. The few with a raised negative score that aren't the 4-5 mentioned all have had some negative rep in the last several years. 8 hours ago, smac97 said: 4. Atheists score poorly, but still substantially better than the Latter-day Saints (-13 v. -21). Not surprising. The atheist group doesn't suffer from the double negative thing. Religious people may not appreciate them, but non-religious don't have as negative a view...a good chunk likely are ones or are good friends with some. They also have a higher "very unfavorable" score than we do. Indicating the dislike is probably more potent for them where as ours is a little milder in intensity. 8 hours ago, smac97 said: 5. I wonder how much of this is attributable more to media and social media treatment of these groups, as compared to respondents actually knowing much about these groups, interacting with them, etc. This might explain why Falun Gong and Sikhism get mediocre scores (-10 and -8, respectively), while more well-known / prominent groups score notably worse (such as Islam, us, Scientologists, etc.). Mix of several things likely. Media representation likely comes into play, how other religious groups view specific groups, particularly from a xtian stance would likely play in. Level and type of exposure would also be important. Etc. Again in most of these categories the main answers are neither positive of negative, but IDK or neutral. Which indicates that the most influential factor is really just caring or knowing enough about any group whatsoever. Most people get comfortable with their circle of experience and don't venture far from it. 8 hours ago, smac97 said: 6. I wonder why Jehovah's Witnesses (-31) score so poorly. They also suffer from the double negative, but those who are religious have an even strong negative impression than they do us, which drags it down further. 8 hours ago, smac97 said: 7. Here's a graphic that breaks things down a bit more: Interesting stuff. Thoughts? Thanks, -Smac Stats are fun tea leaves to look at With luv, BD Edited December 25, 2022 by BlueDreams 8
Tacenda Posted December 25, 2022 Posted December 25, 2022 When I see untruths about the COJCOLDS told on social media, I call them out and correct them always. The church doesn't deserve that. They are too often bunched in with the likes of the FLDS by people that are naive. My son who bought a home not too long ago said he's grateful for his LDS neighbors, since they keep nice yards etc. haha. But I agree too! Not only nice yards, but they seem to be living good lives and it feels safe to live by them.
mfbukowski Posted December 26, 2022 Posted December 26, 2022 On 12/24/2022 at 2:15 PM, Peppermint Patty said: Or leaving zucchini on your porch every few weeks. Seriously is this a "thing" in Utah? It seems there are several responses perhaps implying this is a common practice among JW's? We are on their hit list for bible discussions (yes, I have not alienated them yet- reMARKable, huh!! 😇) but haven't gotten a single zucchini! They OWE me bigtime!
Peppermint Patty Posted December 26, 2022 Posted December 26, 2022 1 hour ago, mfbukowski said: Seriously is this a "thing" in Utah? It seems there are several responses perhaps implying this is a common practice among JW's? We are on their hit list for bible discussions (yes, I have not alienated them yet- reMARKable, huh!! 😇) but haven't gotten a single zucchini! They OWE me bigtime! I don't think you will find a single person who lives in Utah that hasn't had zucchini or other vegetables left on their porch. I think it's great. 1
Tacenda Posted December 26, 2022 Posted December 26, 2022 9 hours ago, Peppermint Patty said: I don't think you will find a single person who lives in Utah that hasn't had zucchini or other vegetables left on their porch. I think it's great. I remember asking if anyone would like some, but never just left them. But not saying that's a bad thing, they could pass them along to someone or the garbage.
mfbukowski Posted December 26, 2022 Posted December 26, 2022 14 hours ago, Peppermint Patty said: I don't think you will find a single person who lives in Utah that hasn't had zucchini or other vegetables left on their porch. I think it's great. We have a ward member who gives us a certain type of grapefruit that my wife loves, (the grapefruit not the member) but it is not a general practice to have stuff just show up. We would have to call the bomb squad if that happened. 😜
Kenngo1969 Posted December 26, 2022 Posted December 26, 2022 On 12/24/2022 at 8:34 PM, Tacenda said: When I see untruths about the COJCOLDS told on social media, I call them out and correct them always. The church doesn't deserve that. They are too often bunched in with the likes of the FLDS by people that are naive. My son who bought a home not too long ago said he's grateful for his LDS neighbors, since they keep nice yards etc. haha. But I agree too! Not only nice yards, but they seem to be living good lives and it feels safe to live by them. +1 (since, Alas!, I cannot upvote you the "regular" way!) 1
Calm Posted December 26, 2022 Posted December 26, 2022 (edited) 7 hours ago, Tacenda said: I remember asking if anyone would like some, but never just left them. But not saying that's a bad thing, they could pass them along to someone or the garbage. I don’t drop off without asking either because I project my own discomfort at throwing gifts away on to others too much. I am intolerant of strawberries and chocolate and hate having to just dump what others give me (thankfully my family usually likes what I can’t eat). I always worry when it’s homemade that someone wIill ask me how I liked them and if I want more as I don’t want to embarrass them or make them feel they wasted time and money by telling them I couldn’t eat them…but it is needlessly worrying because I can say I appreciated the treat for my family, but in the future this ____ might work better. My neighbours often put out boxes with Free signs. I have started posting when we have fruit we aren’t harvesting on FB, so we have a few regulars now we can call up to tell them to come pick the vines clean (I get nervous about home canned fruit and we use grape vines both for fruit and decoration of ugly fences, so have tons more than we use). But dropping off zucchini isn’t a big deal even for me because it’s most likely excess that everyone knows would just get thrown away if not passed on. Edited December 26, 2022 by Calm
Calm Posted December 26, 2022 Posted December 26, 2022 (edited) Also people need to be aware of ants if dropping off food on the porch in summer. We had to toss a full box of gorgeous cookies that were just left on our porch without being sure we heard the doorbell. It was so sad. They were the expensive boutique type as well. It was a thank you gift. Edited December 26, 2022 by Calm
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