Evangelical Christians score higher than non-evangelicals on public, but not on private, commitments to morality

Abstract

ABSTRACT Are distinctly elevated, external, public commitments and displays of morality accompanied by distinctly elevated internal, private commitments to morality? A nationally representative U.S. dataset was used to help answer this question. Evangelical Christians (N = 411) scored higher than non-evangelicals (N = 942) on a measure of commitment to external, public displays of morality. However, the group differences in scores on a measure of internal, private commitments to morality were much smaller and were not statistically significant. Item response theory analyses indicated no measurement bias for the two groups, suggesting that the observed group difference and similarity on the measures of public and private morality commitments were real. Public and private commitments to morality are potentially independent at both the individual and group levels.