Where you vote affects how you vote.

• Position: YOU LIFE - Brief article

Passersby who stopped to answer surveys taken next to churches reported themselves as more politically conservative and more negative toward non-Christians than did people questioned within sight of government buildings--a finding that may be significant when it comes to voting, according to a study at Baylor University, Waco, Texas.

The study adds to a growing body of evidence that religious "priming" can influence religious and nonreligious people alike. Priming occurs when a stimulus, such as a verbal or a visual cue--for example, the buildings that were in participants' line of vision during questioning--influences a response.

The findings are significant in that churches and other buildings affiliated with a religious group are among the most common polling places. "The important finding here is that people near a religious building reported more conservative social and political attitudes than similar people near a government building," explains coauthor Wade Rowatt, associate professor of psychology and...