Validity Check of the “Importance of Religion in Life” Scale

The article analyzes a frequently used indicator of individual religiosity – the scale of importance of religion in life. Two hypotheses are proposed about threats to its validity (ability to measure religiosity). The fi rst threat is that the answers to this scale have diff erent meanings for people, as they represent not the qualities of the individual but a situational image of a religious person. The second threat lies in the potential sensitivity of the question. To test the hypotheses, the databases of the World Values Survey and “Religion and State” (Bar-Ilan University) were used. First hypothesis was confi rmed based on questions about importance of religion and religious identity in four Spanish-speaking Catholic societies: Spain, Mexico, Colombia, and the Philippines. Self-assessment of the importance of religion in life among those who consider themselves religious people diff ers radically. In other words, the meaning of the responses depends on the social situation, and not just on individual religiosity. The second hypothesis was confi rmed by correlation analysis of relationships between the responses to the scale and national policies. Offi cial support for religion, the compulsory nature of religious education, and similar indicators of state regulation are positively correlated only with the proportions of “very important” answers as being the safest and most socially acceptable, but are negatively correlated with all other responses (including “rather important”). Therefore, both hypotheses suggest that threats to the validity of the “importance of religion in life” scale is not valid and needs to be applied with caution and methodologically refi ned.