Economic Development, Not Religion, Explains Political Preferences

What is it about?

This study looks at the largest publicly available dataset of preferences for religion in politics prior to 2010. It finds that across 84 very diverse countries, religion does not explain much about individual's preferences. It is mostly economic factors and personal beliefs.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

It runs counter to a popular thesis by Huntington that suggests religions are fundamentally incompatible and will lead to conflicts (especially Muslim v. Christian). At least in the realm of political preferences regarding religion and politics, we show that this is false. Economics explains most of the cross-national variation.