Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

What are people praying about?  When it comes to the most popular topics of prayer among the 27 millions of UK adults who say they pray, family (71%) leads the way, followed by thanking God (42%), praying for healing (40%) and friends (40%). Worldwide issues, such as praying for global poverty or natural disasters, rank seventh on the list (24%), highlighting the challenge for Tearfund to encourage more people to pray for issues of extreme poverty. ( Tearfund , 2018)  Why pray? Among those who pray, half (49%) agree that God hears their prayers and two in five (39%) agree that prayer changes the world. Praying also makes people feel better, with those who do so most likely to say they feel reassured or hopeful after having prayed (40% say this). ( Tearfund , 2018) Ad. Get help with Creating Surveys Available on AMAZON  More results from Tearfund One in five (20%) UK adults say they pray regularly (at least once a month). While 51% of U...

Dawn French, Vicar of Dibley, BBC TV Survey results from Tearfund as reported in The Guardian  and CoE data indicate an increase in religious practices during the Covid-19 lockdown. Psychologists will recognize this as consistent with Terror Management Theory as people become more conservative when death awareness increases. The CoE reported 6,000 people called a prayerline during its first two days. The CHURCHTIMES provides some results Among the respondents who said that they prayed more than once a month, the largest age bracket were adults aged 18 to 24 (30 per cent), while 25 per cent of adults who prayed more than once a month were aged 55 and over. Adults aged between 18 and 24 were also more likely to pray about the Government’s response to Covid-19 : 25 per cent, compared with 23 per cent of those aged 65 and over, and 15 per cent of those aged 25-64. 34 per cent of the respondents aged 18 to 24 said that they had watched or listened to a religious service ...