Talk about “lies, damn lies, and statistics!” This story was floating around Facebook all week—reposted by liberal and anti-religious types gloating over the claim that evangelicals are the most likely to cheat on their spouses, followed by Catholics and other Christians.
Not so fast.
What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is a case of lazy reporting with an obvious anti-Christian agenda. It quotes the founder of adultery Web site Ashley Madison saying, “You can go and pray every Sunday, or Saturday, or three times a day, and it may not make a difference in how monogamous you are,” and notes that “most cheaters are Christian.”
But it turns out that survey respondents mirror the religious preferences of Americans—almost exactly. Evangelical Christians are 26 percent of the population and 25 percent of cheaters in this study—making them very slightly underrepresented in the cheater population. The same is true for Catholics. The most overrepresented group, with triple the percentage of cheaters than their share of the US population, is…Muslims. (Of course, it’s still a very, very slight overrepresentation—Muslims are .6 percent of the population and 1.5 percent of cheaters in this survey.)
You mean to tell me that most subscribers to a U.S.-based site reflect the makeup of the U.S.? No!
Needless to say, this survey confirms that religion isn’t a safeguard against cheating on your spouse, whether you’re an evangelical or a Buddhist. But it seems that “Muslims Most Likely to Cheat” just wasn’t an appealing headline for the PC crowd, even though it’s more honest.