Paper for a statistics course:
Understanding the significance of constituent demographics is incredibly important to politicians and policymakers alike. These individuals constantly apply statistical tools to surveys in order to effectively understand the political perspectives of target populations. How fervently an individual practices their religion—what will be called “Degree of Religious Practice”—is one key aspect of political science. This study seeks to answer one primary research question and two secondary research questions. The primary research question is to determine whether or not there exists a correlation between the degree of religious practice and household income. The secondary research questions are as follows: (1) Is there a correlation between the degree of religious practice and geographic location within the United States? (2) Is there a correlation between the degree of religious practice and age?
My hypothesis for the primary question is that degree of religious practice will be strongly negatively correlated with household income; as household income increases, degree of religious practice will tend to decrease. My hypothesis for the first secondary question is that degree of religious practice will be moderately correlated with location within the US. My hypothesis for the second secondary question is that degree of religious practice will be moderately positively correlated with age; as the age of the respondent increases, degree of religious practice will tend to increase.
Read the full paper here.