Imagine two people are crouched at the beginning of a track, ready to race. The starting pistol fires and they both take off. They each have an individual desire to win, but in this race only one of them has an additional driving force causing them to run faster: an angry bear. Who do you think will win?
In this imaginary scenario, the starting pistol is the polls opening, the finish line is casting your vote, and the racers are secular and religious citizens. Election day is fast approaching, which means if you haven’t already, time is running out for you to finish your individual race to the poll. I encourage you, as a secular voter, to exercise your rights and support secular values by casting your vote. If you’ve already voted, I would still encourage you to continue reading, as this article will discuss the alarming results found in this 2023 study by Sung Joon Jang and others, on a potential long standing correlation between certain aspects of religiosity and civic engagement. In other words, whether religious people have an extra driving force–a “bear”–pushing them to vote. One which secular people lack. This study analyzed the potential positive relationship between civic engagement and two concepts referred to in the study as “transcendent accountability” and “religiopolitical awareness”.
At a basic level, it seems very logical that there would be a connection between religiosity and civic engagement. After all, religious groups offer their worshipers a shared perspective on the world, a shared set of values and beliefs, and the space necessary to celebrate those shared traits. However, it’s important to remember that religious traditions can vary wildly even from person to person within a single congregation. Some members may pay very close attention to religious texts and group leaders, while others may only attend religious services a few times a year. Additionally, some people consider themselves religious but do not claim membership of any religious group or organization. So does this “logical” connection really exist between religiosity and civic engagement?
Firstly, let’s look at some data points from past elections. According to this Pew Research Center article from January 2024, 17% of religious “nones” say they volunteered for an organization or association in the past year, while 27% of religiously affiliated people did. Additionally, only 39% of religious “nones” voted in the 2022 midterm elections as compared to 51% of religiously affiliated. Now, it is important to note that many of the data points do not show significant differences between the two groups. In fact, by some specific measurements, atheists and agnostics outperform religiously affiliated people in civic engagement (such as closely following current government affairs). The fact remains, however, that religiously affiliated people outperform religious “nones” by many metrics and there is merit in attempting to understand why.
Back to Jang’s study, I will explain the two new terms the researchers proposed in a moment, but first it’s important to discuss why the researchers felt the need to introduce these terms, specifically. As explained in the study, while a relationship between religiosity and civic engagement has long been a point of interest for sociologists, studies have been largely inconclusive in drawing a direct correlation between the two. However, many of these previous studies have looked directly at either “religious belief” and civic engagement or organizational resources provided by religious affiliation (e.g. information from pulpit, time and space to discuss politics with other people of faith) and civic engagement. This new study proposes two new lenses through which we can analyze a potential correlation between religiosity and civic engagement: transcendent accountability and religiopolitical awareness.
Transcendent accountability, as defined in the study, refers to “seeing oneself as responsible to God or a higher power for one’s impact on other people and the environment.” Essentially, this is the idea that people of faith have a belief that they are responsible to serve a higher power, which motivates them to perform their civic duties in order to aid the greater good. This can manifest as both a feeling of encouragement to help others, or as a powerful driving fear of punishment if one fails to serve the greater good sufficiently. Either force can act as a “bear” for a person of faith. Religiopolitical awareness is defined as “perceiving the influence of one’s religion and/or spirituality on one’s political views and activities.” The study found that whether considering both or just religiopolitical awareness, there is a positive relationship between religiosity and political participation including voting and other political activity.
Along with the psychological influences discussed in the study, people of faith have pre existing communities and physical locations, i.e. churches, mosques, synagogues etc., where citizens can gather and discuss political issues that motivate them to vote. Unlike most religions, there is no physical location where secular people of a specific worldview gather to discuss the state of the world and otherwise socialize. Likewise, there are very few long standing communities of secular individuals that meet and have the kinds of conversations that inspire individuals to engage in their civic duties.
In short, by every metric we are at a significant motivational disadvantage as compared to people of faith. This is why we, as secular voters, need our own imaginary “bear”. If you are a secular citizen and haven’t already voted, I hope the information in this article can serve as the “bear” you need to get out to the polls. If you already voted, I hope you spread this information to other secular citizens who might need a “bear” to motivate them to vote.
