Religious Influences on American Public Attitudes Toward Military Action, 2008–2022

Abstract

Analysts of American politics have given only modest attention to the way religious factors shape public attitudes toward foreign policy, including the use of US military force. The Cooperative Election Studies from 2008 to 2022 provide an excellent data source for such analysis. Attitudes toward different uses of the military are well measured and the massive sample permits examination of even small ethnoreligious groups. We find that American religious groups vary greatly on overall willingness to use the military but also respond in distinctive—and predictable—ways to each type of intervention. Although religious influences differ somewhat by racial group and are partly mediated by ideology and partisanship, they often play an independent role, even under stringent statistical controls for other variables commonly found to influence public attitudes.