Can Religiosity be Sensed with Satellite Data? An Assessment of Luminosity during Ramadan in Turkey

Abstract Social scientists have long been interested in how religious beliefs and practices impact are impacted by socio-political economic processes. Most recently, scholarly attention has focused on the interplay between religiosity local actors, events, institutions. Until now, measures of relied heavily self-reports surveys, but these cannot always be safely collected tend to costly. Even where available, survey-based may too obtrusive rarely representative sub-national units. Here, I propose an inexpensive method that uses satellite imagery unobtrusively estimate across small geographic hypothesize night-lights affected behavior fasting Muslims during Ramadan, especially places daytime activities otherwise unchanged (i.e., there is no “day-night inversion”). explore confirm validity this measurement strategy Turkish case, using a series high-quality surveys electoral results, representing 973 administrative districts. conclude with discussion external overview ethical concerns raised use remote sensing religiosity, Muslim world elsewhere.