R-Order and Religious Switching

Rokeach (1960) has suggested that religious switching and intermarriage reflect a pattern in which choices are made on the basis of perceived similarity of denominations. This ordering (known as R-order) is: (1) Catholic, (2) Episcopalian, (3) Lutheran, (4) Presbyterian, (5) Methodist, and (6) Baptist. (Subsequent studies have placed sectarians in the seventh position.) In our research, data from the 1982-83 General Social Surveys showed that switching occurred most often among denominations which were one or two steps removed from each other in R-order. There was, however, a failure to discriminate between denominations more than two steps removed.