Reactions to Clergy Financial and Sexual Misconduct: Evidence from a National Survey Experiment

How do organizational actors evaluate different types of clergy misconduct? The way organizational leadership misconduct is perceived has consequences for how that misconduct will be addressed, tolerated, or in extreme cases, even perpetuated. Through a preregistered survey experiment with a nationally representative sample (n=1,124), I compare how religious and non-religious individuals evaluate different forms of clergy malfeasance. While non-religious respondents view clergy sexual misconduct as categorically more serious than clergy embezzlement, religious respondents show no significant difference in their evaluations of these violations' severity. Further, religiously active people display greater confidence in their congregation's ability to "do the right thing" following misconduct. Simultaneously, religiously active people are less likely to recommend that people cease donating to or attending the congregation even when allegations of their clergy's misconduct are confirmed.