Abstract
Substantial research has demonstrated that variation in religious orientation covaries with prejudice toward outgroups. For instance, prejudice bears positive associations with Intrinsic Religiosity (IR): the extent to which individuals maintain a deeply internalized sense of their relationship with God that carries into their dealings in life. By contrast, prejudice is negatively associated with Quest Orientation (QO): the extent to which individuals derive meaning from encounters with religious doubt and questioning. The present research examined whether these associations stem from variability in Fundamentalism: belief in literal and absolute authority of sacred texts and tenets. Fundamentalism is strongly positively associated with prejudice, and correlates positively with IR and negatively with QO. Accordingly, Fundamentalism may explain IR’s positive association with prejudice, as well as QO’s negative association with prejudice. Heterosexual Christians and Catholics (N = 166) completed the Revised Religious Fundamentalism Scale, and IR and QO were measured with the Revised Religious Life Inventory; subsequently, participants completed assessments of Homonegativity, Islamophobia, Anti-Atheism, Ethnocentrism, and a set of group-specific feeling thermometers. Results replicated prior work, with IR positively correlating with prejudice and QO negatively correlating with prejudice. Most notably, partial correlations controlling for Fundamentalism eliminated the positive associations between IR and prejudice indices, and also eliminated the negative associations between QO and prejudice. These results indicate the need to statistically and theoretically distinguish religious orientations from Fundamentalism, and intriguingly suggest that QO’s negative association with prejudice stems from resistance to Fundamentalism.
Presenters
Spee KosloffAssociate Professor, Psychology, California State University, Fresno, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
Religious Commonalities and Differences
KEYWORDS
Religious Orientations, Intrinsic Religiosity, Quest Orientation, Fundamentalism, Prejudice
