Risk Preference Theory and Gender Differences in Religiousness: A Replication and Extension

Keywords

Risk preferences, Religiosity, Gender differences, Transcriptional regulatory elements, Attenuation coefficients, Data models

Abstract

Gender differences in risk preferences have been proposed to explain a large part of the widespread gender difference in religiousness. Using the same data and models that were usedfor a recent test of more general claims about the relationship between risk preference and religiousness, this study tests the more specific, but more provoca- tive, idea that risk preferences account for a substantial portion of the gender dif- ference in religiousness. The data are from the 1990-3 World Values Survey for the United States and Italy. Across four indicators of religiousness, analyses reveal no substantially consequential or statistically significant change in the estimated effect of gender on religiousness when risk preferences are added to regression models. In other words, while the data do support the notion that risk preferences are related to religiousness, they give no indication that this relationship accounts for the observed gender difference in religiousness.

Original Publication Citation

Hoffmann, John P. 2019. “Risk Preference Theory and Gender Differences in Religiousness: A Replication and Extension.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 58(1): 210-230.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2018-12-20

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/6618

Publisher

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion

Language

English

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Sociology

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

Link to Full Text

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