Religious Affiliation Predicts Prejudice and Prosocial Behavior Cody Butcher, Alex DeLaPena, Hemapreya Selvanathan Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jeffrey Goodman, Ph. D IntroductionMethodsResults of Regression Analyses The relationship between religion, prejudice and prosocial behavior is complex. Religion has long provided a tenet of goodness, contributing to the widely held belief that religious adherence is associated with lower prejudice and greater helping. However, evidence exists to the contrary (Pargament, 2002). To conceptualize religion, social psychologists have described religion in terms of religious orientation (Batson & Burris, 1994): Intrinsically religious believers internalize and follow a set of religious teachings. Extrinsic believers view religion as a means to establish interpersonal connections and external rewards. Quest believers are characterized by an openness to various religious teachings without adhering strongly to any one doctrine. Religious fundamentalist believers commit to a set of religious doctrine, believed to be the absolute truth, thereby creating an “us” versus “them” mentality. Leak & Finken (2011) demonstrated complex links between religious orientation and prejudice toward minority groups. Religious fundamentalism predicted prejudice toward Black, Muslim, and gay and lesbian people. Quest religiosity predicted lower prejudice toward Black, Muslim, and gay and lesbian people. Neither intrinsic nor extrinsic religiosity predicated prejudice toward Black and Muslim people, but both predicted prejudice toward gay and lesbian individuals. Research provides controversial findings on the link between religion and prosociality (Pargament, 2002). Several researchers describe religion as encouraging helping behaviors, while others suggest that altruism develops independent of religious beliefs. We sought to replicate and extend the findings of previous researchers by evaluating the relationships between religious affiliation and prejudice, and between religious affiliation and helping. Additionally, we sought to compare levels of prejudice and helping between believers and nonbelievers. Participants N = 230 UWEC students (129 women, 60 men, 41 no response; mean age = 20.9; 95% Caucasian, 3% Asian American, 1% African American, 1% Latino) Procedure An was distributed inviting participants to complete an anonymous survey regarding religious affiliation and social attitudes and behaviors. Predictor Variables Intrinsic Religiosity (10 items, α=.92, e.g., My faith involves all of my life; My religious beliefs are what really lie behind my whole approach to life) Quest Religiosity (16 items, α=.90, e.g., My religious beliefs may change in the future as I mature and learn) Religious Fundamentalism (20 items, α=.95, e.g., God will punish most severely those who abandon his true religion; There is a religion on this earth that teaches, without error, God’s truth) Criterion Variables Feelings Towards Abortion (4 items, α=.92, e.g., how appropriate is it for a woman to have an abortion) Muslim Posse (6 items, α=.93, e.g., if the government created a law allowing it, would you pursue Muslim militants) Black Prejudice (19 items, α=.91, e.g., Black people have jobs whites should have; Black people should not push themselves where they are not wanted) Gay and Lesbian Prejudice (20 items, α=.96, e.g., I think female/male homosexuality is disgusting; The idea of female/male homosexual marriages seems ridiculous to me) Helping Questions (6 items, α=.93, e.g., if you found $20 would you be willing to give it to an LGBTQ student association) Conclusion Our results indicated that compared to nonbelievers, believers scored higher on intrinsic and fundamentalist religiosity. Somewhat surprisingly, nonbelievers scored higher than believers on quest religiosity. A clear pattern emerged indicating that believers expressed more prejudicial attitudes than nonbelievers toward all four minority groups we considered. One type of religiosity - quest - predicted lower prejudice toward all groups considered. Believers were no more likely than nonbelievers to indicate they would provide a monetary donation to minority organizations. In fact, nonbelievers exhibited a significantly higher likelihood to donate to an abortion organization. A similar trend was evident in regards to organizations affiliated with our other minority groups. Our findings make important theoretical contributions to the study of religion, prejudice and helping. Regression Analysis Strategy Fundamentalism was strongly predictive of greater prejudice and less helping toward all groups, however fundamentalists represented a small percentage of our sample (that exerted an undue influence on our regression models). We removed this variable from consideration, and performed a series of four regression analyses to parse out the variance in prejudice explained by intrinsic religiosity, quest religiosity, and sex. Abortion Prejudice: Higher scores on intrinsic religiosity predicted higher prejudice (β =.60, p <.001); whereas higher scores on quest religiosity predicted lower prejudice (β = -.24, p <.003), R 2 adj =.427; F(2, 228) = 86.6, p <.001) Muslim Prejudice: Intrinsic scores were unrelated to prejudice (β =.07, p >.4); whereas higher quest scores predicted lower prejudice (β = -.28, p <.007). Being male predicted greater prejudice (β =.22, p <.002), R 2 adj =.14; F(3, 179) = 10.8, p <.001) Black Prejudice: Intrinsic scores were unrelated to prejudice (β = -.07, p >.5); whereas higher quest scores predicted lower prejudice (β = -.38, p <.001). Being male predicted greater prejudice (β =.18, p <.009), R 2 adj =.12; F(3, 185) = 9.7, p <.001) LGBT Prejudice: Intrinsic scores were unrelated to prejudice (β =.09, p >.2); whereas higher quest scores predicted lower prejudice (β = -.58, p <.001). Being male predicted greater prejudice (β =.26, p <.001), R 2 adj =.46; F(3, 184) = 54.24, p <.001) ANOVA group differences between Nonbelievers and Believers Significant group differences can be observed on the graphs by non- overlapping standard error bars. Believers scored higher than nonbelievers on all measures of prejudice, and on two measures of religious orientation. Nonbelievers scored higher than believers on quest religiosity and the abortion helping measure. We thank Learning & Technology Services for printing this poster. Results of ANOVA Analyses