S01E14 - How Measurement Changes Can Exaggerate the Growth of Religious “Nones”

This research article by Matthew Conrad and Conrad Hackett examines how methodological shifts in surveys and censuses can falsely inflate the reported growth of religiously unaffiliated populations. While secularization is a global trend, the authors argue that changes in question wording, such as using non-presumptive language or two-step "filter" questions, make comparisons with older data difficult. Structural changes to questionnaires, such as moving the "no religion" option to the top of a list or introducing it as a distinct category, also encourage more people to select it. Furthermore, the transition from in-person interviews to online formats can introduce nonresponse bias by disproportionately excluding more religious, older participants. The authors emphasize that consistent measurement is essential to distinguish between genuine social evolution and mere artifacts of data collection. Overall, the text serves as a methodological caution against taking dramatic statistical rises in nonreligion at face value without considering how the data was gathered.(Citation: Conrad, Matthew, and Conrad Hackett. 2026. “How Measurement Changes Can Exaggerate the Growth of Religious ‘Nones.’” Sociological Science 13:89–108. doi:10.15195/v13.a5.)