Flemington, NJ, January 29, 2009 – A new national study conducted among 803 Americans from various religious backgrounds revealed that Billy Graham is the most well-known across all religions, while Bob Coy is the least well known.
The study was conducted by HCD Research during January 27-28 to obtain Americans’ perceptions of high profile televangelists and mega church leaders.
Respondents were asked to rate 32 televangelists and mega church leaders based on the following attributes: familiarity, likeability, believability, authenticity/sincerity, personal impact and level of controversy.
Below are the top and lowest rated picks for each attribute:
Attribute |
Highest Rated |
Lowest Rated |
|
Familiarity |
Billy Graham |
William Sheals |
|
Likeability |
Zachery Tims |
Jeremiah Wright |
|
Believability |
Zachery Tims |
Jeremiah Wright |
|
Authenticity/Sincerity |
Zachery Tims |
Ted Haggard |
|
Personal Impact |
Joel Olsteen |
Ted Haggard |
|
Level of Controversy |
Jeremiah Wright |
Robert A.Schuller |
Below is the list of rated televangelists and mega church leaders in order from most well-known, to least well-known:
|
|
Total (n=803) |
|
Billy Graham |
88% |
|
Pat Robertson |
80% |
|
Jimmy Swaggart |
73% |
|
Oral Roberts |
69% |
|
Joel Osteen |
67% |
|
Jeremiah Wright |
56% |
|
Rick Warren |
49% |
|
Benny Hinn |
48% |
|
T.D. Jakes |
40% |
|
Robert A. Schuller |
38% |
|
Ted Haggard |
36% |
|
Robert Tilton |
29% |
|
Creflo Dollar |
25% |
|
Rod Parsley |
23% |
|
Joseph Lowery |
23% |
|
Eddie Long |
13% |
|
Frederick Eikerenkoetter ("Rev Ike") |
13% |
|
Charles Blake |
11% |
|
H. Edwin Young |
10% |
|
Bill Hybels |
10% |
|
Andy Stanley |
8% |
|
William Sheals |
8% |
|
Chuck Smith |
8% |
|
Tommy J. Barnett |
8% |
|
Zachery Tims |
7% |
|
Craig Groeschel |
6% |
|
Billy James Hargis |
6% |
|
Bob Russell |
6% |
|
Kerry Shook |
5% |
|
Brad Powell |
5% |
|
Dave Stone |
5% |
|
Bob Coy |
4% |
The Media Curves web site provides the media and general public with a venue to view Americans’ perceptions of popular and controversial media events and advertisements.
Editors/Reporters: For more information on the study, or to speak with Glenn Kessler, president and CEO, HCD Research, please contact Vince McGourty, HCD Research, at (908) 483-9121 or (vince.mcgourty@hcdi.net).
the 3 who scored highest in Likability, Believability and Authenticity/Sincerity (AND, incidentally, were least controversial)
were also some of the least known
Chuck Smith - 8%
Zachery Tims - 7%
Andy Stanley - 8%
Do we draw the conclusion that the more we know a televangelist, the less we like them and believe them?
I'm not sure I follow the survey's conclusions -
How could 3 of the least known evangelists be the most liked?
Only 7-8% of the respondents (less, since we only had to recognize a name) even KNEW these 3 men!
So, at most, 8% of the respondents liked these men.
Surely some of the other evangelists, those more well-known, had a higher percentage of people who liked them?
No?
I do think this makes the results somewhat less meaningful comparing more and less well-known preachers.
To put this another way, the likability results for each preacher are based on different pools of respondents, so they are not really comparable. Especially among those who are least well known.