Predicting Prejudice from Religious Fundamentalism and Right‐Wing Authoritarianism: A Multiple‐Regression Approach

Abstract

In a study designed to investigate the respective roles of religious fundamentalism and right-wing authoritarianism as predictors of prejudice against racial minorities and homosexuals, participants (47 males, 91 females) responded to a series of questionnaire measures of these constructs. Data were analyzed using multiple regression. Consistent with previous research, authoritarianism was a significant and strong positive predictor of both forms of prejudice. With authoritarianism statistically controlled, however, fundamentalism emerged as a significant negative predictor of racial prejudice but a positive predictor of homosexual prejudice. In a second study, we conducted parallel multiple regressions using the correlations from two previously published studies. The Study 1 results were replicated exactly, except that fundamentalism was a nonsignificant predictor of homosexual prejudice. We interpret the results as evidence that Christian fundamentalism consists of a second major component other than authoritarianism-related to Christian belief content-that is inversely related to some forms of prejudice (including racial prejudice) but not others (e.g., homosexual prejudice).In contrast to the message of brotherly love emphasized by most Christian theologies, decades of research have demonstrated an empirical relationship between religion and prejudice. Allport and Ross (1967) attempted to resolve this paradox by distinguishing two distinct forms of religious orientation, one of which was related to prejudice but one of which was not. Evidence regarding intrinsic religious orientation has been mixed-with early research demonstrating no relationship (see Donahue 1985 for a review) and more recent studies reporting both negative and positive relationships with prejudice (see Fulton, Gorsuch, and Maynard 1999 for a review)-and measures of Christian orthodoxy generally appear uncorrelated with prejudice (Altemeyer and Hunsberger 1992; Kirkpatrick 1993). Measures of extrinsic religious orientation, on the other hand, have generally been found to correlate positively with prejudice (Batson and Ventis 1982;Fulton et al. 1999;Kirkpatrick 1993). However, the dimension of religion found most consistently and strongly to correlate empirically with measures of prejudice has been fundamentalism (Altemeyer and

Religious Ambivalence: Suppression of Pro-Social Attitudes Toward Asylum Seekers by Right-Wing Authoritarianism

“…Although not central to their study, Rowatt et al (2009) reported a positive bivariate association between religion and racial prejudice that became negative in a multivariate model including RWA, which is consistent with previous research (Laythe et al, 2001;Rowatt & Franklin, 2004;Tsang & Rowatt, 2007).These findings suggest a suppression effect of RWA on the association between religion and positive racial attitudes. Specifically, religious individuals should be motivated by religious teachings to engage in pro-social behaviour (e.g., Pichon, Boccato & Saroglou, 2007;Shariff & Norenzayan, 2007), but also be motivated by authoritarian values to engage in prejudice in order to maintain cohesion and security (Hall et al, 2010;Hoverd & Sibley, 2010).…”

“…Religion is certainly linked to authoritarianism, as well as to prejudice (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1992;Hunsberger, Owusu & Duck, 1999;Laythe, Finkel, Bringle & Kirkpatrick, 2002;Laythe, Finkel & Kirkpatrick, 2001;Rowatt & Franklin, 2004;Wylie & Forest, 1992). Moulian (1979), for example, discussed the use of religion by authoritarian regimes to rally followers and to justify their actions, and RWA (but not SDO) has been shown to predict support for religious education in public school curriculums .…”

Right-wing authoritarianism, fundamentalism and prejudice revisited: Removing suppression and statistical artefact

“…This is the important implication of several studies which consider the impact of an individual's Christian fundamentalism and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA; Altemeyer, 1981Altemeyer, , 1988Altemeyer, , 1996 on racial prejudice and homosexual prejudice (e.g., Laythe, Finkel, Bringle, & Kirkpatrick, 2002;Laythe, Finkel, & Kirkpatrick, 2001;Rowatt & Franklin, 2004). Both fundamentalism and RWA typically have positive zero-order correlations with prejudice.…”

Loneliness Corresponds with Politically Conservative Thought

“…RWA is sometimes distinguished conceptually from a related construct, social dominance orientation, with the former focusing on submission to in-group authority figures and the latter focusing on dominance over out-group members [41,42]. Several studies show RWA to be a precursor to prejudice against racial [43] and sexual [44] minorities, as well as greater emphasis on obedience and punishment in child-rearing practices [45]. Unsurprisingly, RWA is related to conservative political ideology, perhaps because it emphasizes the utility of conventionalism and order as responses to vulnerability [46].…”