Most Americans neither like nor dislike Latter-day Saints, and 1 in 3 Americans think they practice polygamy.
SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 5, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- A new survey conducted by the B. H. Roberts Foundation (BHR) asked Americans about their attitudes, knowledge, and beliefs about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The 2022 B. H. Roberts National Latter-day Saint Survey (2022 BHR NLDSS) comes at a time that some in the media have called the "Mormon Moment II." Recently, the Church, its members, and those associated with the faith tradition have been featured in TV shows, movies, viral stories, and other coverage that have increased the faith's visibility. This increased coverage raises questions about what understanding viewers take away from these depictions.
"Latter-day Saints have been significantly overrepresented on platforms such as Netflix, Hulu and TikTok recently," said Josh Coates, the Executive Director at BHR. "And getting actual data on what people think is helpful in elevating discussions about the Church and its members."
In the last two years Netflix and Hulu have featured a number of productions about Latter-day Saints, including "Under the Banner of Heaven," "Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey," "Sins of Our Mother," "Murder Among the Mormons," "Mormon No More" and others.
Using a representative sample from Momentive's national panel, the 2022 B. H. Roberts National Latter-day Saint Survey (2022 BHR NLDSS) included questions on:
- Latter-day Saint beliefs
- Sources of knowledge about Latter-day Saints
- Attitudes about the Church and its members
- Personal ties to Church members
- Beliefs shared with Latter-day Saints
- Latter-day Saints as Christians
- Likelihood of changing religious affiliation
The survey gathered representative quotas of different demographic groups and was self-weighted, which means it gives a statistically-significant look at how Americans think and feel about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Key findings:
Most people know very little about Latter-day Saints. The survey asked people what they felt their level of knowledge was about the Church and then gave them a brief true-or-false quiz: 4 out of 5 respondents failed the quiz.
Many people think Latter-day Saints practice polygamy.
Only 34% of survey takers correctly answered that Latter-day Saints do not live with more than one wife (practice polygamy.)
People who don't like members don't know a lot about the Church
Survey takers who stated that they like members of the Church scored significantly higher on the quiz than those who said they dislike members.
Young people learn about Latter-day Saints from social media.
For those ages 18-29, the biggest sources of information included Facebook and TikTok.
Only about half of Americans know a Latter-day Saint.
When asked how many "Mormons or Latter-day Saints" the respondent personally knew, the average response was 2.2. However, nearly half (46%) of respondents did not know any members at all.
Most people don't have strong feelings about the Church or its members one way or the other.
Around half of survey takers indicated that they neither like nor dislike the Church or its members.
Many people think they will be with their family in the afterlife.
Of Christians who believe in an afterlife, three-fourths believed to some extent that they would be with their families there. Of the survey takers who did not identify with any religion, 24% believed they would be with their families after this life.
The white paper for the 2022 BHR NLDSS can be found at bhroberts.org/2022BHRNLDSS
Infographics depicting particularly interesting portions of the data can be found at bhroberts.org/2022NLDSS_infographic
For more information please email [email protected]
The B. H. Roberts Foundation (BHR) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2020 that is committed to open-access research and education related to Mormonism. BHR maintains a variety of projects including an archival database, research grants and scholarships to academic and independent researchers, and original articles and research.
Media Contact
Josh Coates, B. H. Roberts Foundation, 1 801-210-2885, [email protected]
SOURCE B. H. Roberts Foundation
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