March 2025 Newsletter

Thank you for your interest in the ARDA and our mission of bringing you free, high-quality data on religion. Each month, we highlight the newest data sets and resources available through the ARDA.



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Ahead of the Trend:

Does Religion Drive Conspiratorial Thinking?

Both prophets and conspiracy theorists fulfill a human need to find order in chaos. This overlap raises an intriguing question: Are religious belief and conspiratorial thinking positively linked, as both require imaginative leaps?

A House Divided: Clergy, Conscience, and Same-Sex Marriage

In the National Survey of Religious Leaders, respondents are asked about their personal views of performing a same-sex wedding. Among those who were permitted to conduct a ceremony, a significant majority said that they wouldn’t preside over the nuptials of a same-sex couple. What should come as no surprise is the fact that evangelical clergy would not perform a same-sex wedding even if their tradition allowed it.

Global Flourishing Study: Preregister for Wave 2 Data



The Global Flourishing Study (GFS), is a collaborative effort led by the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University and the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, in partnership with Gallup and the Center for Open Science (COS). This initiative involves data collection from approximately 200,000 participants from 20+ geographically and culturally diverse countries and territories. GFS measures global human flourishing across six areas, including meaning and purpose, character and virtue, and close social relationships.

For more details about the study and to preregister for Wave 2 data, visit the Center for Open Science.