Religious Dones Become More Politically Liberal After Leaving Religion

Research has accumulated evidence for religious residue, or the tendency for aspects of religion to persist after de-identification. The current study sought to examine whether religious residue extends to political orientation; or religious dones report more liberal political attitudes after leaving religion.

We report data from eight samples drawn from three countries (N = 11,017), using both cross-sectional (Studies 1a-f) and longitudinal (Studies 2 and 3) designs.

Studies 1a-f (n = 7089) revealed that adult religious dones reported significantly more politically liberal attitudes than religious individuals and, when pooling samples together, never-religious individuals. Study 2 (n = 2071) confirmed religious dones report more liberal attitudes than religious individuals in a longitudinal sample of adolescents and young adults. In Study 3 (n = 1857), we replicated this longitudinal finding among adolescents and young adults and found that religious de-identification predicted a more liberal political orientation over time.

Rather than demonstrating religious residue in the political domain, religious dones become more politically liberal after leaving religion. We discuss this contextual boundary condition of religious residue across cultures.