Emily Gerdin is a PhD candidate in Developmental Psychology at Yale University. She studies how children and adults think and learn about the groups in their social environments, focusing particularly on belief-based groups such as religions and political groups.
Menu
Donate
Favorite MiC Finding:
In our new Promising Revelations report, we have a series of findings showing how important religion and religious identity remain to young people in the US, despite a general perception that religion is declining. In particular, we find two “perception gaps” from within religious groups: American Jews over 30 underestimate the importance of religion /being Jewish is to Jews under 30, and similarly Muslims over 30 underestimate the importance of religion/being Muslim is to Muslims under 30.
Source: Promising Revelations
Why: To me, our findings suggest that faith remains an important feature of young Americans’ lives, but older generations may not see this because young people engage with their faiths differently than they do. Piety to a young person may not mean following the same traditions as older generations or even mean regular service attendance. If faith-based institutions and religious leaders want to attract younger generations, they need to meet them where they’re at!