Cultural Scaffolding, Cultural Homogeneity, and Religious Belief Stability

• In Event: 20420 - Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 1: Culture, Cognition, and Beliefs

Abstract

Explanations for high rates of belief instability in survey responses over time locate the source of instability in measurement error, in intrapsychic factors such as competing considerations in people’s cognition, or in social networks that present people with contradictory messages. These explanations largely ignore the broader social contexts in which people form and maintain beliefs. This paper outlines a theory of cultural cognition that locates the source of belief stability outside of individuals in the “scaffolding” of organizations, institutions, and other aspects of social environments that make consistently reporting some beliefs easier than others. I test this proposition using data from the National Study of Youth and Religion on adolescents transitioning to adulthood while embedded in religious cultures. Using multi-level models, I show that the constraint of a religious culture – operationalized as homogeneity of beliefs within a religious culture at one point in time – is associated with a substantial reduction in belief variance over time, net of controls for more proximate social influences and experiences shown to cause belief change. Results suggest stable beliefs are principally a social accomplishment reflecting coordinated efforts to ensure stability, rather than an individual cognitive feat, and that researchers should pay more attention to social and cultural contexts as explanations for belief stability.

Author

• Kevin Kiley, North Carolina State University