Fuel on the Fire: Has the Politics of COVID-19 Accelerated Secularization in America?

Abstract Politics increasingly shapes Americans’ social orientations, including their religious affiliations and levels of religiosity. Less is known about whether politics affects secularism—an affirmative embrace of secular worldviews and identities. Drawing on an original panel survey from 2017 to 2021 plus two survey experiments, this paper investigates whether the political debate over public health responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically vaccines, has driven greater secularization in the United States. Specifically, has exposure to the public debate over COVID-19 vaccines led more Americans to embrace a secular worldview? Both observational and experimental data suggest that the debate over pandemic policies and attitudes about that debate have increased individuals’ secularism. This effect is greatest among Democrats, which we show is related to their greater embrace of pro-science attitudes.