Survey overreporting hides a bigger real decline in church attendance.

Evidence

Some scholars believe that the rate of overreporting is actually higher today than a generation ago, and if that is so, then the survey evidence may underestimate the falloff in actual church attendance. … In short, participation in organized worship services is probably lower today than it was twenty-five years ago and is surely lower than it was forty years ago. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 225

Categorization

• QUESTION: This casts doubt on all survey-based measures of religious participation and connects to the broader critique of self-reported data throughout the book.