Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Jews vs. those with no religion

My hypothesis is that Jewish Americans don't really differ from Americans with no religion on their political attitudes, except for on a small number of topics where Jewish experience may be unique. The thought is that Jewish folks, as a group, are about as secular as people with no religion, and secular people tend to be liberal. The table above compares the two groups. All the numbers are percentages except for liking Israel which is a mean score (with answers ranging from 0 to 9).  

There are quite a few significant differences (as indicated by the asterisks) but generally the differences are small, especially on the spending questions.  Both groups are liberals who want more spending for most liberal causes. Jews are more concerned with big city problems, probably because they are more urban.

Where the groups diverge the most is on a few unique issues. Jews are more pro-Israel, pro-immigrant, and pro-abortion. All three seem to be connected to Jewish culture, even abortion which has been viewed in the Jewish tradition more liberally than among Christians.  

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous4:47 AM

    Religion is on its way out. One religion hates another religion so they kill each other.

    ReplyDelete

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