Comments on: What do Mormons, Muslims, Atheists, Gays, and Lesbians Have in Common?

By: Richard Dey

Richard Dey — Tue, 27 May 2014 22:39:00 +0000

And what were the results, exactly? A liberal landslide based not on religion but on attitudes, a few o policies, and a handful closing their eyes and skipping to ballot questions. Why, indeed, would a poor person vote for a plutocrat? or a homosexual vote for a guy who thinks he’s better because he likes girls? I’m a good example. I’ll vote for anybody who has no organized religion, not huge campaign bunkers, no snooty memberships …. Hell, I’d vote for a bum or a bag lady if he agrees with me. Actually, I did — and just look what we got! Spenders, not savers.

By: angry lib

angry lib — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:38:00 +0000

what will a evangelical choose in november? a morman or a black?

By: Michael Corey

Michael Corey — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 23:30:00 +0000

I suspect that you are correct about the magnitude of bias. As for causation, I suspect that there may be multiple factors. Perhaps they have already been identified in the research. There are a few clues about the variables. One of them deals with the conflict of two religions which have characteristics associated with true believers. In a story dated June 21, 2007 in the Baptist Press there were comments about concerns that evangelicals had about voting for a Mormon as president. R. Philip Roberts stated during the International Society of Christian Apologetics’ annual meeting that he was concerned about what he described as the Mormon claim of being the only true Christian Church. He also commented,

“As believers and followers of Jesus Christ, a candidate’s spiritual values are not the only criteria, by any means, for public office, but as voters, exercising our rights as citizens, to ignore altogether candidates’ religious perspectives would be potentially unwise, irresponsible and possible disloyal to our allegiance to Jesus Christ, Lord of lords and King of kings.”

I’m sure that there are other types of true believers which may also have beliefs which conflict with positions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I also suspect that among these groups are hard cores of know-nothings.

Compounding this situation are the large numbers of less than flattering myths and urban legends about Mormons. This type of misinformation is consistent with other types of bias situations. I’m not sure what a though examination of the treatment of Mormons looks like in the popular media. I suspect that a number of studies have been done on this.

This just scratches the surface.

By: Andrew Corey

Andrew Corey — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:38:00 +0000

It is possible that bias toward these groups is even more significant than the numbers suggest, as people often under represent points of view that might be judged negatively by others against social and cultural norms. For me, the causal question is the interesting one. In this case, I wonder about what is causing in the sample population such a significant unwillingness to vote for a Mormon president, especially considered against other characteristics.

By: Michael Corey

Michael Corey — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:32:00 +0000

Gallop includes its methodology and confidence limits in a link at the end of the study. The link for the study is http://www.gallup.com/poll/148100/hesitant-support-mormon-2012.aspx. Gallop states, “Results are based on telephone interviews conducted June 9-12, 2011 with a random sample of –1,020—adults, aged 18+, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of error is ±4 percentage points. For results based on the sample of –524—national adults in Form A and –496—national adults in Form B, the maximum margins of sampling error are ±5 percentage points. For results based on the sample of –914— registered voters, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.” Also included are some other data sorts and trend data. The trends over time are extremely interesting to me. What caught my attention was that some of the Gallop Poll Data is consistent with the Internet experiment data that was used as a basis for the journal article. I’m sure that there are many alternative interpretations of the data and explanations that might be plausible.

By: Felipe Pait

Felipe Pait — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:53:00 +0000

People with biases are probably more willing to admit they would not vote for a Mormon that to admit they are biased against women, blacks, hispanics, or Jews. It is not kosher to be openly racist anymore, but that doesn’t imply people would actually vote for a member of those groups. On the other hand someone may be willing to state they would not vote for a Mormon without even having a deep prejudice, so the barrier may be smaller than the poll suggests.

The poll must have a large error, which is not captured by the usual statistics. I wouldn’t put too much trust in the results.