The Weak(ening) Link Between Religiosity and Morality: Evidence from Five Western Countries

Abstract

Previous research has often found a strong link between religiosity and morality. Specifically, high religiosity results in more restrictive moral positions, and the tendency toward absolutism. In this paper, we use the World Values Survey (WVS) to show a weakening link between three morality scales and religiosity over time in five Western countries (Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand). The exception to this general trend is the area of sexual or body morality, where the correlation remains strong. Further, religiosity does not promote moral homogeneity, as those with high religiosity give no less diverse answers to moral questions than the nonreligious. We suggest that secularization, changing religiosity, and the discursive winnowing of “religion” help explain these trends.