Devotional Unity and Coalitional Division: How Religion plays both Jekyll and Hyde to Religious Tolerance Devotional unity Coalitional division Predicts intolerance Predicts tolerance Ian Hansen

With thanks to Ara Norenzayan Jeremy Ginges Sheldon Solomon John Rector Ilan Dar-Nimrod Hakwan Lau

Religion is evil. Not only is it false, but it will make you religiously intolerant and violent

Why religion is bad, in a nutshell “Incompatible religious doctrines have balkanized our world into separate moral communities, and these divisions have become a continuous source of human conflict.” –Sam Harris, atheist, author of The End of Faith

An example of violent religiously intolerant sentiment “We are at war with Islam… It is not merely that we are at war with an otherwise peaceful religion that has been ‘hijacked’ by extremists. We are at war with precisely the vision of life that is prescribed to all Muslims in the Koran...” –Pat Robertson, of Christian Coalition infamy

Oops, actually that wasn’t Pat Robertson. It was Sam Harris again More wit and wisdom from Sam: “What will we do if an Islamist regime…acquires long-range nuclear weaponry? …In such a situation, the only thing likely to ensure our survival may be a nuclear first strike of our own.” BOOM!

Joking aside, Pat Robertson is still scary “Maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up” --Pat Robertson, on the 700 club

Seeker’s dilemma: should you adopt a religious or non-religious worldview? Nuked if you do Nuked if you don’t

What predicts intolerance? Dogmatism, fundamentalism, exclusivity, authoritarianism--“coalitional rigidity” Coalitional rigidity Religious intolerance +* *When controlling for religious devotion

What predicts coalitional rigidity? Prayer, belief in God, devotion to the divine, devotion to one’s religious belief, intrinsic religiosity—“religious devotion” Coalitional rigidity Religious intoleranceReligious devotion + +* *When controlling for religious intolerance

Incomprehensible Triangle Coalitional rigidity Religious intoleranceReligious devotion + + *When controlling for coalitional rigidity -* Religious devotion has a NEGATIVE direct relationship to religious intolerance, although indirectly positively related

Re-draw the triangle? Coalitional rigidity Religious intoleranceReligious devotion Devotion and rigidity: two faces of the same thing? These inclinations are very highly correlated

The religious package is Janus- faced with regard to religious intolerance Religious devotion Coalitional rigidity Religious intolerance Religious Tolerance

Janus-faced on Scapegoating

Janus-faced on War and Oppression

Janus-faced on Anti-Pluralism

Janus-faced on intolerance generally

Janus-faced even among Mormons † p <.1 ** p <.01 Political intolerance for Multireligious people, Hindus, Muslims, Catholics, Jews and Atheists

How is Janus-faced prediction possible? The principle of transitivity objection If A = B and B = C, then how can A = ~C? Answer: The principle of transitivity applies only to “is exactly the same as”, not “independently predicts”

What is the sound of one hand clapping? Both processes complementary, but very different—and when examined independently of each other may predict very different things. Rising to all-embracing altruistic loving unity Pragmatically pushing back limits of altruistic love to a manageable, quality- controlled ingroup Religious devotion Coalitional rigidity Religion!

Devotion and rigidity as two complementary yet opposing processes of adaptive ingroup favoritism Religious devotion: aids the imaginative expansion of the boundary of moral inclusion Coalitional rigidity: aids the pragmatic hardening of the boundary of moral exclusion

What about experimental evidence?

Terror Management evidence: What makes people hate others also makes them like God

But it also makes them like Buddha Belief in Buddha among Christians

and Shamanic Spirits

And makes them more sanguine about Islam conquering the West Support for a Godly-Islam -will-overthrow-the- faithless-West essay 

Priming God-esteem increases preference for pacifism over warrior values

Priming God-esteem decreases authoritarianism and political intolerance

This mirrors Ginges et al (2007)

Theoretical implications Religion is not black and white rigidity devotionintolerance liberalism toleranceatheism VS. WRONG!

Think of things more in terms of complementary colors IntoleranceTolerance

Think of things more in terms of complementary colors Coalitional rigidity Liberal-mindedness

Think of things more in terms of complementary colors Irreligious non-devotion Religious Devotion

Think of things more in terms of complementary colors IntoleranceTolerance

With Janus-faced adjustment… Religious package : Religious-devotion/coalitional-rigidity Religious tolerance and nonviolence Non-religious package : Liberal-mindedness/irreligious non-devotion Religious intolerance and violence

Not all divides equally likely Mother Teresa vs. Christopher Hitchens Texas vs. Sweden Mohandas Gandhi vs. Winston Churchill Common Rare

A very common—perhaps natural?—psychological divide (Religious) Right Left (Irreligious)

Psych tip for the Pentagon How to get both Right and Left behind the “War of Civilizations” Pump up the Right with rigidity Pump up the Left with atheism devoted RIGID liberal ATHEIST BOOM!

Burning question: Aren’t some religions and ideologies more tolerant than others?

Watch the Muslims Part 1 (Malaysia) Muslims most intolerant

Watch the Muslims Part 2 (10 nations) Muslims least intolerant

Review Does religion contribute to war, oppression and intolerance in the world? --Likely, but it can also contributes to peace, freedom and tolerance Do more religious religions have more potential for intolerance and violence? --Yes, but also more potential for tolerance and nonviolence Can religions be rank ordered by intolerance and support for violence? --Yes, but the rank ordering is very volatile and can be turned on its head from one measure of intolerance to the next, one country to the next, one period of history to the next.

Chicken & Egg issues Coalitional rigidity pragmatically shadows pro-social religious devotion? Or Religious devotion gives people memorable content to be adaptively rigid about?

Pleistocene accident or proximal psychological process? Are devotion and rigidity separate processes that adaptively balance each other? or Does proximal stimulation of devotion cause rigidity or vice versa?

Sociology vs. Psychology Even if religious devotion is psychologically related to tolerance for the individual, do sociological pressures ensure that rigidity will overshadow devotion?

Conclusion