Holes in Sacred Umbrellas
Non-Religious Friendship Networks and Adopting an Atheistic Worldview
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3077232 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Katie E Corcoran (0000-0002-7948-5877, West Virginia University, corresponding author), C P Scheitle (0000-0001-5966-4133, West Virginia University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Publication date | 2025-06-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Secularism and Nonreligion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2053-6712 • E-ISSN: 2053-6712 |
| Publisher | Ubiquity Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.5334/snr.200 |
| OpenAlex | W4411737614 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 38 |
Berger (1967) argued that the plausibility of a religious worldview depends on the strength of the plausibility structure supporting it. We hypothesize that a weaker religious plausibility structure (or, alternatively, a stronger non-religious plausibility structure) will increase the odds of adopting an atheistic worldview. We use waves 2 and 4 of the National Study of Youth and Religion to test the relationship between non-religious and religious friendship ties and adopting an atheistic worldview in the United States. We find that a stronger non-religious plausibility structure, regardless of how it is operationalized (e.g., percent, majority, or entirety of one’s friendship network who are not religious), is significantly associated with increased odds of adopting an atheistic worldview as an emerging adult. Even having one friend who is not religious among mostly religious friends may potentially serve for some to relativize one’s religious worldview thereby increasing the odds of adopting an atheistic worldview. Still, regardless of one’s friendship network’s composition, maintaining a non-atheistic worldview is more common than adopting an atheistic worldview suggesting that worldviews may not be as fragile as some prior research has suggested
Friendship · Sociology · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology
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Mapping Religion's Other
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Religious Exiting and Social Networks
Rejecting Evolution
Secular and Liminal
None Too Simple
Young British religious 'nones
Divine exchanges
Becoming a World-Saver
And then there were none
Social Networks and Social Movements
The Origins of Religious Homophily in a Medium and Large School
Religious Certainty as Social Capital
More than Nothing
Rationality, Choice and the Religious Economy
Holes in Sacred Umbrellas
The Lofland-Stark Conversion Model
The Nones
Sacred Alters
An Interpersonal Influence Model of Traditional Religious Commitment
Social Networks and Religion
Becoming an Atheist in America
Becoming Humanist
What Makes Life Meaningful? Combinations of Meaningful Commitments Among Nonreligious and Religious Americans
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Favor Fishing and Punch-Bowl Christians
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Networks of Faith
Beyond Belief
The 'friendship dynamics of religion,' or the 'religious dynamics of friendship'? A social network analysis of adolescents who attend small schools
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |