The Blood of Christ Compels Them: State Religiosity and State Population Mobility During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pand
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The Blood of Christ Compels Them: State Religiosity and State Population Mobility During the Coronavirus (COVID‑19) Pandemic Terrence D. Hill1 · Kelsey Gonzalez1 · Amy M. Burdette2
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract This paper examines the association between state religiosity and population mobility during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We use first-party geo-behavioral data collected through mobile phone operating systems, global positioning systems, and Wi-Fi signals to assess changes in the average median distance traveled by approximately 15,000,000 devices over eight weeks (February 24–April 13) in the contiguous United States. Robust regression results show that more religious states tend to exhibit higher average mobility scores and slower average declines in mobility. Findings also suggest that state stay-at-home orders have a weaker impact on mobility in more religious states. Keywords Religion · Religiosity · Mobility · Coronavirus · COVID-19
Introduction After spreading around the world in a matter of months, the coronavirus (COVID19) has become a leading cause of death in the United States. According to recent reports, COVID-19 “deaths have snowballed from a few isolated cases to thousands across the country each day” (Keating and Esteban 2020). Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2020) have proposed several potential * Terrence D. Hill [email protected] Kelsey Gonzalez [email protected] Amy M. Burdette [email protected] 1
School of Sociology, The University of Arizona, Social Sciences Building, Room 400, 1145 E. South Campus Drive, P.O. Box 210027, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
2
Department of Sociology, Florida State University, 526 Bellamy Building, Tallahassee, FL 32306‑2270, USA
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Religion and Health
mitigation strategies, social distancing and staying at home have received the most national attention. CDC officials and frontline health care professionals advise that the best way to prevent exposure to the virus is to stay at home and to avoid close contact with people. As the official website of the Hopi Tribe (2020) explains, “the virus does not move, people move it…if people stop moving, the virus stops moving and dies.” If staying at home is so important for slowing the spread of the coronavirus, we must begin to consider the social patterning of mobility (i.e., how far people are traveling from home in their daily lives). The fundamental question is whether certain populations travel more or less than others during the pandemic. In this paper, we consider the association between state religiosity and state mobility scores. Over the past several weeks, the institution of religion has received a great deal of media attention and public scrutiny. On March 18, Newsweek reported that “Pastor Holds Service with over 1000 Parishioners in Defiance of Large-Gathering Ban” (Slisco 2020). On March 19, The Washington Post advised that “Coronavirus Deniers and Hoaxers
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