Holidays, Religiosity, and Democratic Attitudes

Decades of research have linked religion and religiosity to support for democracy and authoritarianism. This study uses a temporal religious prime during national surveys – the European Social Survey and the National Election Survey – to identify the effect of religion on regime-type preferences. Jewish Israelis who took surveys on Friday or Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, expressed more openness to non-democratic governance. They also interpreted the word democracy in a more populist way. Furthermore, non-religious Jews were less democratic on the Sabbath and more interested in strongman rule than they were on days without the religious connotation. Similarly, more religious respondents were less willing to tolerate rule breaking on the Sabbath. Thus, it seems that the ambient religious prime reduces democratic interest among Jewish Israelis. Most crucially, these findings suggest that while a religious social environment is associated with lower democratic commitment, that pattern derives from the less religious segments of society, not the most religious.