Attitudes about the Bible

Abstract

The Attitudes about the Bible instrument is a brief, single-item measure designed to assess the degree of Biblical literalism and perceived divine inspiration among respondents. Developed by the Survey Research Center (SRC) in 1969, this measure captures fundamental differences in religious orientation, ranging from the belief that the Bible is the literal word of God to the view that it is merely a historical text written by wise men. Its initial application was within large-scale political and social surveys, specifically the 1964 Election Study, to understand the relationship between religious beliefs and political attitudes.

Keywords

Biblical attitudes, religious belief, Survey Research Center, political psychology, religious fundamentalism, Biblical literalism, social psychological attitudes.

Authors

Survey Research Center, John P. Robinson, Phillip R. Shaver

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Attitudes about the Bible scale was to quickly categorize respondents based on their fundamental interpretation of the Bible’s authority and origin. In the context of the 1960s, understanding such core religious views was crucial for analyzing social and political polarization in American society. The scale serves as a proxy for measuring adherence to traditional religious authority versus secular or modernist interpretations.

By using a forced-choice format, the instrument efficiently differentiates between four key positions regarding the Bible’s veracity and divine inspiration. This differentiation allows researchers to correlate specific religious orientations with other variables, such as voting behavior, ideology, and broader social psychological attitudes.

Construct

The scale measures the psychological construct of Biblical authority, often operationalized as the degree of Biblical literalism or fundamentalism. This construct is central to understanding religious commitment and its influence on cognitive and social processing. The four response options represent a clear continuum: (1) Divine Inerrancy (literalism), (2) Divine Inspiration with Human Error (moderate view), (3) Human Wisdom (secular view), and (4) Historical Irrelevance (skeptical view).

This single-item construct is robust enough to capture significant variance in religious worldview, which often underlies differences in moral judgment and public policy preferences. It is a foundational measure used in studies linking religiosity to broader social metrics, falling under the domain of political attitudes research.

Validity

As a short, single-item measure derived from large-scale survey research, formal psychometric documentation regarding construct validity is often integrated into broader study reports. The scale exhibits strong face validity, as the items directly address the core belief structure about the Bible’s origin. The categories are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive (with the inclusion of “Don’t know”), clearly delineating distinct theological positions.

Furthermore, evidence of criterion validity is often established through correlational analysis showing significant relationships between responses on this scale and established measures of political conservatism, religious attendance, and institutional trust, consistent with expectations for a measure of religious fundamentalism.

Reliability

Due to its single-item nature (when considered as a categorical variable), traditional internal consistency reliability measures, such as Cronbach’s Alpha, are not applicable. Reliability is typically assessed via test-retest reliability in longitudinal studies, though specific reliability coefficients for the 1969 administration are not explicitly detailed in the summary document. Given its inclusion in major national surveys, the items are presumed to have undergone rigorous pre-testing to ensure consistency and clarity in respondent interpretation.

Factor Analysis

Factor analysis is not typically applied to single-item categorical measures. However, when treated as an ordinal variable in broader factor analyses of religious and political belief systems, the Attitudes about the Bible item generally loads heavily onto a primary factor representing Traditional Religious Authority or Religious Fundamentalism. Its placement within the Measures of Political Attitudes compilation suggests its utility as a key indicator within larger latent factors concerning social conservatism.

Instrument

Test Type: Single-item forced-choice attitude measure

Format: Structured survey question with five predefined response options

Language Available: English (Original administration)

Population Group: General adult population

Age Group: 18 years and older

Population Details: Originally administered to a nationally representative sample of the American electorate as part of the 1964 Election Study.

Test Methodology: Standardized face-to-face or telephone interview survey methodology.

Keywords

Religious attitudes, Biblical interpretation, political sociology, survey research, social psychology, religious belief systems, Survey Research Center.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Institutional/Compilation Authors)

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A (Contact the Survey Research Center, University of Michigan)

Correspondence Address: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The scale was developed by the Survey Research Center and first utilized in the 1964 Election Study data collection, formalized and documented in 1969. Usage is typically governed by the data access policies of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) or the Survey Research Center. The items are generally considered to be in the public domain for academic research use when citing the appropriate source documentation.

The original PDF documentation compiling this instrument can be downloaded here: Measures of social psychological attitudes.

Reference’s

• Robinson, John P., Shaver, Phillip R. (1969). Measures of Political Attitudes. Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• Survey Research Center (1969). Attitudes about the Bible. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Survey Research Center.
• 1964 Election Study. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Survey Research Center (ICPR).

Items of the Attitudes about the Bible

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

1. The Bible is God’s Word and all it says is true.
2. The Bible was written by men inspired by God but it contains some human errors.
3. The Bible is a good book because it was written by wise men but God had nothing to do with it.
4. The Bible was written by men who lived so long ago that it is worth very little today.
5. Don’t know