The role of religious beliefs and collective narcissism in interreligious contact on university students

Abstract

The rise of exclusive puritanism movements challenges several communities to live in peaceful coexistence. This research aimed to observe the level of interreligious contact on university students. This was a threefold study. The first part was an initial inquiry to construct an interreligious contact scale. The second sought to see the inferential association between interreligious contact, belief in religious teachings (i.e. fundamental religious belief, kindly religious belief, and meta-religion endorsement), and collective narcissism. The third part was to investigate the differences between those variables, between students who joined student political organizations with religion-based ideology and those who did not. There were 381 respondents from various religious backgrounds (e.g. Muslim, Christian, and other) participating in this research. The result of the exploratory factor analysis indicated a unidimensionality of the interreligious contact scale. Regression analysis found that fundamental religious belief and collective narcissism made individuals less likely to exhibit interreligious contact. However, kindly religious belief and meta-religion endorsement encouraged interreligious contact. In addition, the independent sample t-test suggested that there was a difference of inclusivism level between religion-based student organization members and non-members. Members of such organization tended to exhibit a lower level of interreligious contact, while their level of fundamental religious belief and collective narcissism were higher compared to their non-member counterparts.

Religious schema and tolerance towards alienated groups in Indonesia

“…People who believed strongly in the truth inscribed in their religious scriptures were likely to exhibit lower tolerance towards atheists. A number of other studies have also reported similar findings: the more literally people interpret their religious teachings, the higher their prejudice against outgroups and the lower their tendency to engage with other religions ( Ardi and Budiarti, 2020 ; Hunsberger and Jackson, 2005 ; Küpper and Zick, 2011 ; Wrench et al., 2006 ). Ardi and Budiarti's (2020) study demonstrated a negative association between religious fundamentalism and contact with outgroups.…”

“…A number of other studies have also reported similar findings: the more literally people interpret their religious teachings, the higher their prejudice against outgroups and the lower their tendency to engage with other religions ( Ardi and Budiarti, 2020 ; Hunsberger and Jackson, 2005 ; Küpper and Zick, 2011 ; Wrench et al., 2006 ). Ardi and Budiarti's (2020) study demonstrated a negative association between religious fundamentalism and contact with outgroups. Religious scriptures offer a frame of reference through which believers can interpret reality so that they can establish goals and build relationships with other groups ( Hunsberger and Jackson, 2005 ).…”

Productivity in religious orders: A management by values applied approach

“…We indicate the estimations for the dependent variables of the models used in the empirical study and complementary information using Regression Analysis as Ardi and Budiarti (2020) in their study about the role of religious beliefs and collective narcissism in interreligious contact on university students.…”