Following previous discussions of objective religious hypocrisy, we now explore the concept of subjective religious hypocrisy; that is, belonging to a religious group but not believing in its tenets. In exchange terms, subjective hypocrisy can be understood as cheating on one’s subjective religious commitments (belief) in order to gain access to otherwise unavailable social incentives. Drawing on existing literature, we specify the social structural conditions that lead to higher levels of subjective religious hypocrisy. We also explore the costs and risks this behavior can create for individuals and the consequences it can have for religious groups. We offer a series of testable deductive propositions.
AlbrechtSLCornwallM (1989) Life events and religious change. Review of Religious Research31(1): 23–38.
2.
AndersS (1955) Religious behavior of church families. Journal of Marriage and the Family17: 54–57.
3.
BakerJOSmithB (2009a) None to simple: examining issues of religious nonbelief and nonbelonging in the United States. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion48(4): 719–733.
4.
BakerJOSmithB (2009b) The nones: social characteristics of the religiously unaffiliated. Social Forces87(3): 1251–1263.
5.
BaoW-NWhitbeckLBHoytDR. (1999) Perceived parental acceptance as a moderator of religious transmission among adolescent boys and girls. Journal of Marriage and the Family61(2): 362–374.
6.
BlackAE (2004) With god on our side: religion in George W. Bush’s foreign policy speeches. In: Prepared for a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, 2–5September. Available at: http://www.ucs.louisiana.edu/~ras2777/relpol/bushreligion.PDF
7.
BruceS (2002) God is Dead: Secularization in the West. Oxford: Blackwell.
8.
BuchananA (1979) Revolutionary motivation and rationality. Philosophy and Public Affairs9: 59–82.
9.
ChartrandTLBarghJA (1999) The chameleon effect: the perception-behavior link and social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psycholology76(6): 893–910.
10.
DieterME (1975) Wesleyan-Holiness aspects of Pentecostal origins: as mediated through the nineteenth-century Holiness revival. In: SynanV (ed.) Aspects of Pentecostal-Charismatic Origins. Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, pp. 57–76.
11.
DurkheimE ([1912] 1995) The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (trans. FieldsKE). New York: The Free Press.
12.
EagleDE (2011) Changing patterns of attendance at religious services in Canada: 1986-2008. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion50(1): 187–200.
13.
FestingerL (1957) A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
14.
FinkeR (1997) The consequences of religious competition: supply-side explanations for religious change. In: YoungLA (ed.) Rational Choice Theory and Religion: Summary and Assessment. New York: Routledge Press, pp. 46–56.
15.
FinkeRStarkR (1993) The Churching of America 1776-1990: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
16.
FinkeRStarkR (2005) The Churching of America 1776-2005: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
17.
FroesePPfaffS (2001) Replete and desolate markets: Poland, East Germany, and the new religious paradigm. Social Forces80(2): 481–507.
18.
GerringJ (2007) Case Study Research: Principles and Practices. New York: Cambridge University Press.
19.
GillA (1998) Rendering Unto Caesar: The Catholic Church and the State in Latin America. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
20.
GoldthorpeJH (1998) Rational action theory for sociology. British Journal of Sociology49(2): 167–192.
21.
HirschmanAO (1970) Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
22.
IannacconeLR (1990) Religious practice: a human capital approach. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion29(3): 297–314.
23.
IannacconeLR (1992) Sacrifice and stigma: reducing free-riding in cults, communes, and other collectives. Journal of Political Economy100(2): 271–291.
24.
IannacconeLR (1994) Why strict churches are strong. American Journal of Sociology99: 1180–1211.
JonesCE (1988) Holiness movement. In: BurgessSMAlexanderPH (eds) Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, pp. 406–409.
27.
KimHPfaffS (2012) Structure and dynamics of a religious insurgency: students and the spread of the reformation. American Sociological Review77(2): 188–215.
28.
KuranT (1995) Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
29.
KuranT (1998) Social mechanisms of dissonance reduction. In: HedstromPSwedbergR (eds) Social Mechanisms: An Analytical Approach to Social Theory. London: Cambridge University Press, pp. 147–171.
30.
LavricMFlereS (2010) Measuring religious costs and rewards in a cross cultural perspective. Rationality and Society22: 223–236.
31.
LavricMFlereS (2011) Intrinsic religious orientation and religious rewards: an empirical evaluation of two approaches to religious motivation. Rationality and Society23: 217–233.
32.
LimCMcGregorCA (2010) Secular and liminal: discovering heterogeneity among religious nones. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion49(4): 596–618.
33.
McBrideM (2007) Club mormon: free-riders, monitoring, and exclusion in the LDS church. Rationality and Society19(4): 395–424.
34.
McCarthyJDZaldMN (1977) Resource mobilization and social movements: a partial theory. American Journal of Sociology82: 1212–1239.
35.
MarwellGOliverPE (1993) The Critical Mass in Collective Action: A Micro-Social Theory. New York: Cambridge University Press.
36.
MarxK ([1843] 1970) Critique of Hegel’s ‘Philosophy of Right’ (ed. O’MallyJ). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
37.
MontgomeryJD (1996) Dynamics of the religious economy: exit, voice, and denominational secularization. Rationality and Society8(1): 81–110.
38.
NashDBergerP (1962) The child, the family, and the ‘Religious Revival’ in the suburbs. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion2: 85–93.
39.
NelsenHMNelsenAK (1975) The Black Church in the Sixties. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky.
40.
NelsenHMPotvinRH (1981) Gender and regional differences in the religiosity of protestant adolescents. Review of Religious Research22: 278–285.
41.
O’Connell KillenPSilkM (eds) (2004) Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest: The None Zone. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira.
42.
OlsonDVAPerlP (2005) Free and cheap riding in strict, conservative churches. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion44(2): 123–142.
43.
OppK-D (1988) Grievances and participation in social movements. American Sociological Review53(6): 853–864.
44.
PutnamRDCampbellDE (2010) American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. New York: Simon & Schuster.
45.
Reagan WilsonCSilkM (eds) (2005) Religion and Public Life in the South: In the Evangelical Mode. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira.
46.
RochfordEB (1985) Hare Krishna in America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
47.
RoofWC (2009) American presidential rhetoric from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush: another look at civil religion. Social Compass56(2): 286–301.
48.
SandomirskySWilsonJ (1990) Process of disaffiliation: religious mobility among men and women. Social Forces68(4): 1211–1229.
49.
SherkatDE (1997) Embedding religious choices: preference and social constraints into rational choice theories of religious behavior. In: YoungLA (ed.) Rational Choice Theory and Religion: Summary and Assessment. New York: Routledge Press, pp. 65–86.
50.
SherkatDE (2004) Religious intermarriage in the United States: trends, patterns, and predictors. Social Science Research33(4): 606–625.
51.
SherkatDEWilsonJ (1995) Preference, constraints, and choices in religious markets: an examination of religious switching and apostasy. Social Forces73(3): 993–1026.
52.
SilkMWalshA (2008) One Nation, Divisible: How Regional Religious Differences Shape American Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
53.
SmithC (2003) Secularizing American higher education: the case of early American sociology. In: SmithC (ed.) The Secular Revolution: Power, Interests, and Conflict in the Secularization of American Public Life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, pp. 97–159.
54.
SmithC (2005) Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. New York: Oxford University Press.
55.
StarkR (1996) The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
56.
StarkR (1999) Micro foundations of religion: a revised theory. Sociological Theory17(3): 264–289.
57.
StarkRBainbridgeWS (1985) The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
58.
StarkRFinkeR (2000) Acts of Faith – Explaining the Human Side of Religion. New York: University of California Press.
59.
StolzenbergRMMaryB-LWaiteLJ (1994) Religious participation in early adulthood: age and family life cycle effects on church membership. American Sociological Review60: 76–90.
60.
WallisJL (1991) Church ministry and the free rider problem: religious liberty and disestablishment. American Journal of Economics and Sociology50: 183–197.
61.
WarnerRS (1997) Convergence towards the new paradigm: a case of induction. In: YoungLA (ed.) Rational Choice Theory and Religion: Summary and Assessment. New York: Routledge Press, pp. 87–101.
62.
WeberM ([1905] 2002) The protestant ethic and the ‘Spirit’ of capitalism. In: BaehrPWellsGC (eds) The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism and Other Writings. New York: Penguin, pp. 1–202.
63.
WeberM ([1906] 2002) ‘Churches’ and ‘Sects’ in North America. In: BaehrPWellsGC (eds) The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism and Other Writings. New York: Penguin, pp. 203–220.
64.
WellmanJKJr (2008) Evangelical vs. Liberal: The Clash of Christian Cultures in the Pacific Northwest. New York: Oxford University Press.
65.
WilsonJ (1978) Religion in American Society: The Effective Presence. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
66.
WollschlegerJBeachL (2011) A cucumber for a cow: a theoretical exploration of the causes and consequences of religious hypocrisy. Rationality and Society23(2): 155–174.
