A new PRRI study, ÔÇ£I Know What You Did Last Sunday: Measuring Social Desirability Bias in Self-Reported Religious Behavior, Belief, and Belonging,ÔÇØ asked┬árandom samples of Americans identical questions about religious attendance, affiliation, salience and belief in God on two surveys ÔÇô one via telephone and the other online ÔÇô and compared the results. The research shows that every subgroup of Americans ┬áinflates their levels of religious participation, with young adults, Catholics and white mainline Protestants particularly likely to inflate the frequency of their attendance at religious services.
