According to a study from the Public Religion Research Institute, Americans may not be telling the truth about church attendance. But the real story here isn't just the headline; it's where the exaggeration of church attendance comes from in the first place. For context: gauging exaggeration in a poll is notoriously difficult—after all, your numbers are only as good as people's honesty.

So, to see how much exaggeration was present in people's reported church attendance, this study gathered data by using two platforms—a phone interview and an online survey. In the impersonal online survey, participants were less likely to exaggerate their church attendance … showing "much lower levels of worship attendance." Why? Because of what sociologists call "social desirability bias." We've all felt it, it's the desire to exaggerate something about ourselves that we feel will impress others.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Here's the bottom line: we live in a culture where church attendance is dropping dramatically, but people still feel a strong bias to be perceived as attendees. Where does that hypocrisy come from? Is it positively or negatively motivated? If church is socially desirable, why aren't we attending it more? I guess we need another survey …