Jerry Coyne has a very interesting post discussing a new study by F. Solt, P. Habel, and J. T. Grant, J. T. titled Economic inequality, relative power, and religiosity that appeared in the journal Social Science Quarterly, 92: 447–465 (2011), that finds that economic inequality is positively correlated with religious belief, and looks at theories that might account for this.
The most common theory is called “deprivation theory” which says that in economically unequal societies, poorer folks turn to religion for reassurance and comfort. The authors of the paper introduce something called “relative power theory” that says that “many wealthy individuals, rather than simply allowing redistribution to be decided through the democratic process as such median-voter models assume, respond to higher levels of inequality by adopting religious beliefs and spreading them among their poorer fellow citizens. Religion then works to discourage interest in mere material well-being in favor of eternal spiritual rewards, preserving the privileges of the rich and allowing unequal conditions to continue.”
Coyne summarizes the conclusions of the paper.
Their findings thus suggest that both the deprivation and relative power theories are needed to explain the data. In economically unequal societies, rich people promulgate religion to keep their own place in the hierarchy, and, rather than fighting for more equality, poor people accept religion as an easy form of solace.
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The authors also note that the relative power theory explains why the U.S. is so religious despite the fact that its citizens are generally well off. It is, they say, because the U.S. shows considerably more economic inequality than other developed countries (and that is true).
The authors also did a time-study and found that “Increases in inequality in one year predict substantial gains in religiosity in the next,” while “past values of religiosity do not predict future values of inequality” clearly indicating that it is inequality that influences religiosity and not the other way around.
A heartening sign is the trend of declining religiosity in America over the last half century.
Of course, this predicts that the recent rise in inequality in the US will see an uptick in religiosity. But it seems that the overall tendency is for religion to decline.
Both the original paper and Coyne’s summary make for fascinating reading.
What appealed to me is the inference that the fights for economic justice and the elimination of religion are related, since those are two of my personal goals.
I’m a bit dumbfounded that Coyne doubts the relative-power theory because “I just don’t notice rich people in America trying to spread religion among the poor”. What on earth does he think the whole religious right / teabagger movement is all about? Where does he think the money comes from to keep its propaganda machinery well-oiled?
Yes, I was bit surprised by that too, since he is a sophisticated observer. Religion is relentlessly promoted all over the place!
I am puzzled by the long-run decline in U.S. religiosity shown in the graph. Since economic inequality has been exhibiting a secular intensification since around 1980, I would expect (per the study) to see a corresponding increase in religiosity. All I see is some short-lived upticks around the time of the recessions in the early ’80s and early ’90s. If the U.S. is becoming more unequal, why is religiosity declining?
Richard,
It could be that although religiosity lags behind inequality, the rate of decline of religiosity on the way down are larger than the rate on the way up, leading to an overall downward trend in religiosity even if inequality oscillates around a mean value.
But there are two periods of sharp drops that need explaining.
The first is from the mid-50s until around 1980. This was the period when real incomes were rising in the US and can be considered the good years. It is only after that that incomes for most people started stagnating. So that can be explained.
What is more puzzling is the second, smaller drop from around 1999 to 2003. The skyrocketing rise in inequality that marks the current period has (not yet at least) led to a marked rise in religiosity.
@Steve
Don’t be so quick to lump members of the Tea Party in with the Moral Majority. They are very different groups.
I wonder if the flow of money into churches has anything to do with the rate of inequality. My mom gives about 20% of her meager monthly checks to her church. 20% is a pretty good chunk of change.
Also, its knows that ‘Red’ states give more to charity than ‘Blue’ states. (Arthur Brooks “Who Really Cares”) I’m not sure if giving money to the church qualifies as charity giving (I know its tax deductible.) That said, perhaps religion makes people poorer because of the flow of money out of the pockets of churchgoers.
Henry,
The quoted study seems to conclude that the causal connection goes in the direction of greater inequality causing a rise in religion, whereas your theory goes the other way.
Of course, these are statistical correlations and so not 100%, so in the case of people like your mother their generous giving may be impoverishing many of them somewhat while making a few ministers wealthy.