Ex-Christians Show Stronger Progressive Views Than Lifelong Nonbelievers, Study Finds

Analysis of the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey indicates that respondents who were raised Christian but later left the faith (“dones”) express markedly more liberal positions than respondents who have never identified with a religion (“nones”). The liberal tilt spans abortion, criminal-justice reform, voting-rights protection, and same-sex marriage.

U.S. demographers project that unaffiliated individuals—atheists, agnostics, and those selecting “no religion”—will become the nation’s largest demographic group within two decades. Scholars distinguish “nones” (never religious) from “dones” (raised religiously but later disaffiliated), a distinction central to the study.

The study was led by Ayse Busra Topal (University of California, Riverside) and Spencer Kiesel (University of Cincinnati). It examined a subset of 3,527 respondents who identified as atheist, agnostic, or unaffiliated in the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey, focusing on former Christians and lifelong nonbelievers.

Among the nonreligious sample, 41 % reported a Christian upbringing and 45 % reported no religious upbringing. Threat perception correlated positively with liberal policy support among “dones,” while “nones” shifted only at extreme threat levels. Racial breakdown showed “nones” most often Asian, then White, Black, Latino.

The authors argue that former Christians form a politically active bloc whose voting behavior may be mobilized by messages emphasizing the agenda of the Christian right. As the unaffiliated population expands, distinctions between “dones” and “nones” could shape campaign strategies and polarization.

Topal and Kiesel state that the emotional pain of leaving a faith, combined with the visible political involvement of right-wing churches, creates a “potent reactive attitude” that pushes former believers toward progressive positions. They also note that causality cannot be confirmed from correlational data.

The researchers acknowledge that their statistical models cannot prove that disaffiliation causes liberalism. They call for experimental designs and open-ended questionnaires to untangle directionality. The lack of statistical significance for Asian respondents further limits the generalizability of the findings.

Some Latino respondents with low threat perception favored restrictive immigration policies and opposed same-sex marriage, diverging from the overall liberal trend. The study’s cross-sectional snapshot from 2021 does not capture longitudinal changes, and additional research is needed to verify persistence of the observed correlations.

• “People who leave their faith often experience social alienation and a sense of losing their community.” — PsyPost article

• “Across these varied topics, abandoning a Christian identity strongly correlated with a left-wing political stance.” — PsyPost article

• “The researchers suggest that the pain of leaving a faith and the political alignment of many right-wing churches creates a potent reactive attitude.” — PsyPost article

• “The mathematical models could not reliably confirm the former Christian upbringing effect for this specific group.” — PsyPost article