The Freakonomics e-mail inbox constantly produces interesting material. Like this one, from a reader we’ll call G.D.:
I loved your books! I have found my thoughts drifting to some of the subjects over the past few days, especially altruism and apathy. I was curious if any of the experiments took into account the subjects’ religious beliefs. I don’t know how one would logistically test that but it would be interesting to see how those claiming to follow a religious doctrine teaching altruism would do in the tests.
This thought led to another about myself. How would I do in the tests? We are agnostics living deep in the heart of Texas and our family fakes Christianity for social reasons. It’s not so much for the sake of my husband or myself but for our young children. We found by experience that if we were truthful about not being regular church attenders, the play dates suddenly ended. Thus started the faking of the religious funk.
It seemed silly but it’s all very serious business down here. We don’t go to church or teach or children one belief is “right” over another. We expose them to every kind of belief and trust that they will one day settle in to their very own spirituality. However, for the sake of friends and neighbors, we pretend we are Christians. We try not to lie but rather not to disclose unnecessary information. As the children are getting older, this isn’t so easy for them and an outing is probably eminent.
We are not the only ones. We have found a few other fakers out there. I would love it if you ever explored this subject in a future book. I should mention that the friend who recommended Freakonomics to me is the head of the bible study at her church. Interesting.
I am interested in hearing similar stories from readers. I would not be surprised if political ideology is another vibe that gets faked once in a while.
Also, while the altruism experiments we wrote about in SuperFreakonomics did not factor in the subjects’ religion, we did include a somewhat related endnote:
Along these same lines, consider another clever field experiment, this one conducted in thirty Dutch churches by a young economist named Adriaan R. Soetevent. In these churches, the collection was taken up in a closed bag that was passed along from person to person, row to row. Soetevent got the churches to let him switch things up, randomly substituting an open collection basket for the closed bags over a period of several months. He wanted to know if the added scrutiny changed the donation patterns. (An open basket lets you see how much money has already been collected as well as how much your neighbor puts in.) Indeed it did: with open baskets, the churchgoers gave more money, including fewer small-denomination coins, than with closed bags – although, interestingly, the effect petered out once the open baskets had been around for a while. See Soetevent, “Anonymity in Giving in a Natural Context – a Field Experiment in 30 Churches,” Journal of Public Economics 89 (2005).
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Research by Jonathan Haidt indicates that political “choice” may actually be a hard-wired morality choice. Liberals value justice and caring, while conservatives place greater value on respect for authority and purity, for instance. No wonder we fake being open to other people’s views. Arguing won’t change anyone. It just makes us all feel bad.
In Ireland the majority of schools are owned and run by religious orders. These orders can give preferential entrance order to practising Catholics. It is very common to hear people who maintain a religious facade to allow their children go to school, or at least to a half way local school.
I believe similar things happen in Britain but there it is more a question of getting into a good school rather than any local one.
Must be something about Texas. The faking is especially prominent in the dating scene here. A girl I know started going to church to meet guys, and I asked her how it went. She said, “They were all there for the wrong reason, too.”
I completely understand where G.D. is coming from. I too am deep in the heart of Texas, where the mere mention of atheism causes folks to break out in hives. Evangelical Christianity is pervasive in every aspect of life here, including the workplace. Where else would you get a talk about finding the Lord Jesus Christ in an employee review? (I’m not kidding, I was told this right before I was asked to resign) Political affiliation is also a big point of contention. The scenes from Fox News – yea, those people are real and being surrounded by them and knowing that they are packing heat is frightening. The same boss that told me I need to find Jesus also openly supported the McCain campaign, proudly boasted in an employee meeting that he did not vote for Obama and that Obama is going to ruin the small business, and told me to turn off the Presidential inauguration because it wasn’t really a significant piece of history. I’ve really had it with being quiet about my “evil godless liberal ways” and the cost of that here in Texas is your livelihood. If you work for a private company, you run the risk of ostracizing yourself from your coworkers and making yourself a target to your employer.
As a fellow southerner (originally from Alabama), I know several stories similar to G.D.’s. I sympathize with G.D. as I too have had the same experience. I grew up in a very religiously/politically conservative home where church attendance and adherence to religious practices were expected. I did not realize how narrow my own views were until I made it to college, traveled abroad, and found a partner in life who has helped open my eyes to new views. I now look back and laugh at the reasons I voted for Bush II in 2004 (I just didn’t know any better at the time). Now, we live in a much more progressive part of the US and enjoy being surrounded by a citizenry that generally either does not discuss the topic or is more likely to share our views.
G.D.’s problem is one that is common to the South.
Freakonomics should reach out to some of its southern colleagues to study this a bit further. I believe they would be surprised to see the number of people who fit the bill of being atheist/agnostic, but have to suck it up and live a lie in order to maintain peace in the neighborhood.
If you don’t “…teach [your] children one belief is ‘right’ over another,” how far does that go? Is stealing OK? Lying, cheating, murdering? How about just not being altruistic? If your kids decide that some of those things are “right” for them, will you teach them otherwise? Relativism doesn’t work, folks. You’re setting your kids up for disaster, and robbing them of years of their lives that could be spent getting to know the God of the universe and understanding His love and power.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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I would venture to say that most Americans live a significant portion of their life pretending to be religious. The times they aren’t pretending are usually because they are primed to switch on a religious reaction in a certain situation. Usually the priming effect is based on societal pressure or taught in a way that fosters guilt. Most likely, special interests with an agenda have a hand in priming the population.
Situations where people cite Christian ideals in grand debates like abortion and choose to ignore the very same teachings of Jesus when talking about helping the poor and excising greed certainly beg the question.
Special interests have primed us to think in a certain framework defined by them, making religious fakers out of us all.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Great question, observation. I can imagine it being difficult living deep in the heart of Texas and not being particularly religious. I don’t have that problem living in NY. I practice Nicheren Buddhism, but detest any religious fanatic of any faith. My friends range the gamut of religious believers to non-belivers and those who claim to be just ‘spiritual.’
In saying that, I don’t think economics would have any correlation to religion, unless you bring up tithing, in which, I do believe. But, I would think finances have no link to one’s faith, I may be wrong, but I don’t see any connection.
Now, I do believe political ‘fakery’ takes place in certain parts of the country. With crazies on the right (especially), as well as the left, if one’s on one coast or the other or in the Midwest, one can be isolated due to political leanings. Again, in NY, although heavily Democratic, we’ll still be able to tolerate a Republican in our rank.
I’ve always thought this country should have more than two polical parties, but, I don’t know how well the seemingly crazy, xenophobic Tea Partiers would fit into the NY landscape. While they do bring up some valid points, their too ‘out there’ to be considered a threat. I think all they will end up doing is destroying the Republican party with their demands of political players moving farther to the right.