When analyzing voting behavior, a recent Cornell study indicated the importance of religion, but stressed that the role of a voter’s religious identity is “contingent on the individual’s social location.” The study, conducted by Prof. Thomas Hirschl, developmental sociology; Prof. James Booth, biological statistics and computational biology; and sociologist Leland Glenna from Pennsylvania State University, was based on data from 5,543 individuals from the General Social Survey that spanned presidential elections from 1980 to 2000. According to the University, the study will be published in the December issue of Social Sciences Quarterly.

In particular, the study analyzed the impacts of religious identity in relation to a voter’s socioeconomic level. According to Hirschl, while there might be a similarity in interpretation between people of like religious identities, there is still a difference in interpretation between the wealthy and the poor.

For instance, the study noted the propensity to vote Republican among Protestants, Catholics and other religions correspondingly increases with income. In particular, the study noted the tendency for wealthy Protestants who favor a literalist interpretation of the Bible to strongly support Republicans, while the percentage of poor Protestants of the same biblical interpretational persuasion who support Republicans is much lower.

In comparison, low-income Catholics who adopt the same biblical interpretation, tend to strongly support Democrats, while wealthy Catholic biblical literalists support Democrats in lower percentages than their poorer counterparts, according to the University. Hirschl believes this finding is indicative of lower-class Catholics’ beliefs that the Bible advocates social redistribution, leading them to favor Democrats over Republicans.

Economic well-being and other strictly social characteristics are not the only contributing factors to voting trends. An individual’s race and gender are also key determinants when analyzing an individual’s voting tendencies. The study found that men tend to lend their support to the Republican party more frequently than do women. The authors attributed this finding to women’s desire for more governmental support and social programs.