Chances Are: Lenten Penance

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“Feeling guilty about your lack of self-discipline? You’re not alone”


Lent

With Easter weekend upon us those who managed to maintain a Lenten pledge are getting ready to leave their self-control behind them after a long six weeks. With those stating no religion now outnumbering Christians in the UK, at Dectech we wondered what proportion of the population still engage with this tradition of abstaining for the period of Lent. We also wanted to investigate whether those taking part are embarrassed to admit it now that it’s less prevalent, or alternatively whether people see it as a discipline in which they should still be participating.

We surveyed British respondents during Lent, and when asked directly 12% of our respondents stated that they had given or taken something up for Lent this year. Women were significantly more likely to have done so than men. Amongst those who stated that they had given something up, 20% cut out chocolate and another 24% gave up another unhealthy food, while 20% abstained from alcohol. Other vices included were coffee, meat and sugar. The only activity taken up for the period was exercise.

So 12% of the British public claim to have participated in Lent, but we wanted to see how truthful people are about this topic. Using the Unmatched Count Technique (see here for details) we can ask a question while providing the respondent anonymity, therefore encouraging honesty. When asked in this format only 4% of Brits were found to have either given or taken something up. Rather than being embarrassed to participate, this level of over-stating in the direct responses implies that Lent is still a practice that we feel we should engage in, so much so that people will claim to have even when they haven’t.

This 8% difference between stated and actual levels in society is one of the larger gaps that we’ve seen, with this over-statement also seen in topics like asking for a promotion or pay rise. The discomfort with the level of disengagement from a traditionally Christian event may highlight a British society not yet caught up with the speed of change between generations, in terms of levels of religious commitment and religious diversity.

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