Replication Data for: Comparing Religious and Secular Interventions to Increase Young Adult Political Participation: Evidence from WhatsApp-Based Civic Education Courses in Zambia

It is often assumed that, in highly religious environments, religious messages that promote political participation will more effectively influence behavior than non-religious messages with the same goal. To our knowledge, however, this assumption remains untested. We present results from a community-collaborative study implemented prior to elections in Zambia, an overwhelmingly Christian country with a youth-skewed population. We randomized young adults into different versions of a WhatsApp-based civics course and compare outcomes after exposure to civic information only, versus after civic information accompanied by either religious or non-religious messages that promote self-efficacy and grit. Because Zambia is a highly religious country, we expected the religious course to have the largest effects. Instead, the non-religious efficacy-boosting course did. The religious course performed no better than the information-only condition. This study cautions against assuming the efficacy of religious messages, even in highly religious contexts, and identifies new questions for future research.