Do secular and religious social networks meet the same individual and societal needs?

ABSTRACT

Research by Putnam and Campbell (2010), among others, seems to indicate that church-based religious social networks are larger and more conducive to happiness, volunteering, and charitable donating than secular social networks. Are those in church-based religious networks necessarily happier, more civically engaged and altruistic? If so, why? Herein, we call for focused research on the comparative structural differences between religious and secular networks.

KEYWORDS:

• Secularization
• networks
• religion
• non-affiliation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.