GSS (2024) — Religion belief (postlife + god + pray)
https://gss.norc.org/get-the-data/ →benchmark:gss-religion-2024
Shape mix:
2
bimodal-asymmetric
1
multimodal-symmetric
Δ 1.02
4.29
()
→ 3.27
()
within-fixture gradient
Acceptance rubric
An SSR re-run acceptably reproduces this benchmark when it clears every check below on the same 3 paired questions the source publishes. The chip badges name the checks the round-38 → round-46 shape-mismatch finding argued are necessary but not sufficient in isolation.
CI overlap
3/3
Shape match
3/3
SSR mean inside CI · shape badge reproduces the source label.
What this benchmark discloses
Recruitment screener (verbatim)
GSS uses an address-based national probability sample of U.S. adults 18+. The 2024 cross-section ran mixed-mode (in-person + web push). No content screener. Sampling frame and selection probability are documented in the GSS 2024 Codebook R3 (NORC). pray runs on the full ballot share (n=3,269); god and postlife sit on smaller ballot shares (god n=2,160, postlife n=1,283).
Sample weighting & demographics
Weighted to wtssps (NORC's recommended GSS 2024 post-stratification weight, person-level). Published 1-5 means are the weighted raw means after each item's specific remap. The pray item is INVERTED in the codebook (raw 1 = highest prayer frequency = strongest religiosity); the SSR axis convention is always higher = stronger belief, so pray's rescale flips the raw direction.
Fieldwork dates, country, language
United States, 2024 cross-section. Fieldwork March–November 2024 per the GSS 2024 Codebook R3 (page 1). Modes: in-person and web push (push-to-web for the subsample without prior in-person contact).
Original question text & translations
postlife (codebook verbatim): "Do you believe there is a life after death?" god: "Which statement comes closest to expressing what you believe about God?" with the six options below. pray: "About how often do you pray?" with the six options below.
Likert / scale labelling
postlife — 1='yes' (high religiosity = SSR 5), 2='no' (low = SSR 1). god — raw 1='I don't believe in God' (least religious = SSR 1), 2='no way to find out', 3='some higher power', 4='believe sometimes', 5='believe but have doubts', 6='know God really exists' (most religious = SSR 5). pray — raw 1='several times a day' (most frequent = SSR 5), 2='once a day', 3='several times a week', 4='once a week', 5='less than once a week', 6='never' (least frequent = SSR 1) — INVERTED direction from god. Each item's weighting_notes spells out the per-item rescale.
FGI moderator guide & coding rules
Closed-ended Likert, no FGI. No moderator guide. postlife has run since 1973, god since 1988, pray since 1983 — all three with the same stems and value labels. The pray item's INVERTED direction is a fixture-side convention: SSR axis stays consistent at "higher = stronger" by flipping the raw 6-pt during the rescale.
Data source & license
Public domain (NSF-funded). Required citation: Davern, Michael; Bautista, Rene; Freese, Jeremy; Herd, Pamela; and Morgan, Stephen L. General Social Survey 1972-2024. NORC ed., Chicago, 2025.
Anything not disclosed here was not available in the source dataset and is recorded as such.
SSR run — reproducibility keys
- template_version
- 3.0.0
- llm_seed
- 4219
- bootstrap_seed
- 8438
- llm_model
- deepseek-v4-flash
- embedding_model
- nvidia/nv-embed-v1
SSR score vs ground truth, by question
Each row holds one question. The teal mark and range are SSR. The sky mark and range are the source FGI/survey.
§
Do you believe there is a life after death?
SSR
—
Source
4.29 (4.21–4.38)
Source distribution
SD 1.53
skew -1.69
2 cells
bimodal-asymmetric
1.02.03.04.05.0
§
Which statement comes closest to expressing what you believe about God? (1=don't believe → 6=know God exists)
SSR
—
Source
3.96 (3.91–4.02)
Source distribution
SD 1.31
skew -0.94
6 cells
bimodal-asymmetric
1.02.03.04.05.0
§
About how often do you pray? (1=several times a day → 6=never)
SSR
—
Source
3.27 (3.22–3.32)
Source distribution
SD 1.57
skew -0.29
6 cells
multimodal-symmetric
1.02.03.04.05.0