Don't always assume that you understand a chart!

This set of graphs is from an article in The Economist. I want to focus on the middle graph and the question it purports to answer:

Is religion's waning influence on American life a good thing or a bad thing?

What does that question mean? Does it mean:

• Is the influence of religion on American life (which incidentally is waning) a good or bad thing? or
• Is the waning of the influence of religion on American life a good or bad thing?

Does the question address the influence of religion or the waning of that influence? I suspect that the grammarian would suggest that the first is the actual meaning of the question, and that most people would assume that the intent was to obtain a response to the second question.

The question does not identify the religion to which the question is intended to apply.

• Presumably the influence of some religions is increasing while that of others is decreasing, as the economic and political influence of their adherents increases or decreases;
• Respondents might think that it would be a good thing if the influence of religion A were to decrease while it would be a bad thing if the influence of religion B were to decrease.

So what did the question mean, and what did the frequency of responses mean?

The actual questions asked by the Pew Research Center were:

Q.38 At the present time, do you think religion as a whole is increasing its influence on American life or losing its influence? Answers coded: Increasing, Decreasing, Same, Don't Know
IF GAVE RESPONSE IN Q.38 (Q.38=1,2,3), ASK:
Q.39 All in all, do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing?

56 percent of respondents answered both that they believed that religion was losing influence and that that was a bad thing. 12 percent of respondents answered both that they believed that religion was losing influence and that that was a good thing. Note that 22 percent of respondents answered that religion was gaining influence, 2 percent that the influence was remaining the same, and 4 percent that they didn't know or refused to answer.

I am disappointed in the Pew Research Center, as I don't know what people meant by their responses to the question that Pew asked. I am more disappointed in the graph from The Economist which seems to me to be even less clear than the Pew Research Center report.