Field Experiments in Religion: A Dream Whose Time Has Come

Field experiments offer powerful tests of causality in real-world settings. They have high validity—both internal and external—and require smaller inferential leaps than observational or laboratory methods. Nonetheless, they are rarely applied to religion. This article advocates for the frequent use...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal for the scientific study of religion Vol. 57; no. 2; pp. 193 - 205
Main Author Wright, Bradley R. E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.06.2018
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Subjects
Causality
Experiments
field experiments
Field study
Religion
Religious identity
Religious studies
Research methodology
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Summary:Field experiments offer powerful tests of causality in real-world settings. They have high validity—both internal and external—and require smaller inferential leaps than observational or laboratory methods. Nonetheless, they are rarely applied to religion. This article advocates for the frequent use of field experiments in the study of religion. It reviews their methodological advantages, and it identifies various ways that religion can be incorporated into a field experiment design. It proposes multiple strategies for creating feasible, ethical religion field experiments as well as optimizing them. Ultimately, field experiments have the potential to transform the study of religion.
Bibliography:Acknowledgments
This work was supported by grants 48298 and 60915 from the John Templeton Foundation.
The author deeply thanks Donald Green, Mark Edwards, Jeremy Uecker, Blake Kent, and Stuart Riepl for their important contributions to this article.
Note
ISSN:0021-8294
1468-5906
DOI:10.1111/jssr.12509