Sleeping Giant or Herd of Cats? An Experimental Investigation of Nonreligious Americans’ Responsiveness to Issue- and Group-Based Political Cues

Abstract

The rise of the “religious nones” has garnered significant interest among journalists and scholars. Whereas very few people reported that they were not affiliated with an established religious tradition just 20 years ago, currently as many as 30 percent of Americans claim no religion when asked their religious preference on public opinion surveys. This seismic shift in the religious composition of the country precipitates important questions about the attitudes, group identity, and political participation of religious nones in response to contemporary issues. In this paper, we present the results of a novel survey experiment (N =1,013) designed to determine if issue and identity cues increase religious nones’ sense of group identification, group consciousness, linked fate, and willingness to engage in political behavior. We leverage a unique large-scale sample of nonreligious Americans to facilitate these tests. Our results suggest that relevant political messaging does little to activate collective identification or political engagement among the nonreligious. Our findings have important implications for the future of American politics, even as the number of religiously unaffiliated people continues to grow.