Study: Americans Exaggerate How Often They Go to Church; Catholic, Mainline Exaggerate More Than Evangelical

Americans exaggerate how often they go to Church in answers to surveys, a new study finds. Catholics and Mainline Protestants exaggerated more than Evangelical Protestants and black Protestants.

Since religious service attendance is considered positive behavior, Americans tend to overestimate how often they attend services when answering questions from a live interviewer. This is called a "social desirability bias."

When answering questions for an anonymous internet survey, the social desirability bias does not have the same effect. So, Public Religion Research Institute compared the results of phone surveys to those of internet surveys. Keep reading