Seeing Is Believing: Religious Media Consumption and Public Opinion toward Same-sex Relationships

Abstract

An extensive literature demonstrates that religion is a key determinant of Americans’ social and political attitudes. This literature, however, has neglected an important measure of everyday religious practice, preference, and socialization: religious media consumption. We take a key social issue where attitudes have been shown to be largely shaped by religion—same-sex relationships—as an example to determine whether religious media consumption predicts social attitudes net of the measures typically included in the literature on religion and attitudes: affiliation, practice, and literalism. We draw on data from three national surveys, each of which contains different measures of religious media consumption and attitudes toward various same-sex relationships: the 1998 General Social Survey, 2005 Baylor Religion Survey, and 2012 Portraits of American Life Study. Both multivariate and propensity score matching analyses demonstrate that religious media consumption independently predicts lower support for same-sex relationships in all three surveys. We propose that religious media consumption is a key measure of religious practice, preference, and socialization that shapes Americans’ views toward social issues through both direct messages and by fortifying subcultural boundaries.

When and why is religious attendance associated with antigay bias and gay rights opposition? A justification-suppression model approach.

“…Data can be accessed by following the URL in the References section for each dataset. The data sets examined in Study 1 have been used in past research using the same antigay bias variables as in the present research (see Baker & Smith, 2009; Bradberry & Jacobson, 2015; Brandt & Crawford, 2016; Carl, 2015; Crawford, Brandt, Inbar, & Mallinas, 2016; Elder & Greene, 2016; England, 2016; Franzen & Griebel, 2013; Gay, Lynxwiler, & Smith, 2015; Glick, Cleary, & Golden, 2015; Hoffarth & Jost, in press; Perry, 2013a, 2013b; Perry & Schnabel, in press; Perry & Whitehead, in press; Rowatt, LaBouff, Johnson, Froese, & Tsang, 2009; Schnabel, 2016; Schnabel & Sevell, 2017; Sherkat, in press; Smith & Johnson, 2010; Twenge et al, 2016; Whitehead, 2007, 2014). However, these past studies have examined different research questions than in the present research.…”

From Bat Mitzvah to the Bar: Religious Habitus, Self-Concept, and Women’s Educational Outcomes

“…Religious subcultures are not just shaped by theology, but also by factors such as historical events, demographic patterns, and political concerns. As subcultures evolve, they can take on a life of their own above-and-beyond the religious beliefs on which they are based, shaping and reshaping people’s values and behaviors in ways that go beyond theology (Mez 2020; Nie 2019; Perry and Schnabel 2017). For example, conservative Protestantism is a religious subculture shaped by both theological and social factors.…”

Gender, Sexuality, and Religion: A Critical Integrative Review and Agenda for Future Research

“…Scholars attribute evangelical Protestants' conservative attitudes to their literal interpretation of the Bible and their politicized religiosity. Religious teachings provide schemas (Sewell 1992) that shape religionists' "worldviews" (Emerson 1996) on issues like pornography (Perry 2019), gender roles in the household (Bartkowski and Hempel 2009), abortion (Ellison, Echevarría, and Smith 2005), and same-sex relationships (Martin 2009;Perry and Schnabel 2017). Frequent attendance draws congregants into a "moral community," where they may be sanctioned for their views (Olson, Cadge, and Harrison 2006;Petersen and Donnenwerth 1998).…”