Called to Serve: The Prosocial Behavior of Active Latter-day Saints

Abstract

A landmark study quantifying the volunteer hours, charitable giving, and civic engagement of active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The authors find that practicing Latter-day Saints contribute substantially above national averages on multiple measures of prosocial behavior.

Findings for Latter-day Saints

• Active Latter-day Saints volunteer substantially more hours per year than the U.S. national average.
• Charitable giving (both religious and secular) among active members exceeds national norms.
• Civic engagement measures (voting, community involvement) are above U.S. averages.
• Service patterns persist across age, gender, and income brackets within the active LDS sample.

Limitations in methodology

Sample focuses on "active" members, which may oversample the most engaged; self-reported volunteer hours subject to recall and social-desirability bias.

Cite this study

Cnaan, R. A., Evans, V., Curtis, D. W. (2012). Called to Serve: The Prosocial Behavior of Active Latter-day Saints. University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice.

Ram A. Cnaan, et al.. "Called to Serve: The Prosocial Behavior of Active Latter-day Saints." University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice, 2012..

@article{called_to_serve_prosocial_behavior,
  title = {Called to Serve: The Prosocial Behavior of Active Latter-day Saints},
  author = {Ram A. Cnaan and Van Evans and Daniel W. Curtis},
  year = {2012},
  journal = {University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice},
}