1. Religion and War, Religion and Peace: Evidence for a Nuanced Relationship Ian Hansen and Ara Norenzayan Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia. Does religion foster war and oppression or lay foundations for peace and freedom, or both? Two relevant aspects of religion are prayer (indicative of devotion) and the exclusivist belief that one’s religious beliefs are the only true beliefs (indicative of rigid attachment to a coalition/ ideology). While these two aspects of religion were positively correlated in all faith groups we examined, they made opposite predictions about religious scapegoating. Also, when the ten nations we examined were ordered by demographic indicators of war and oppression, this ordering was always negatively related to prayer but orthogonal or positively related to exclusivity. Introduction Abstract Scapegoating other religions War and oppression The following graph shows how prayer and exclusivity—though positively related—have an opposite independent relationship to scapegoating. The graph shows the full sample divided by regular prayer and exclusivity and the proportion in each group who scapegoat other religions. Note that exclusivists are generally more likely to scapegoat, yet those who pray regularly are less likely. Prayer and exclusivity Conclusion Our findings support Allport’s (1954,444) classic insight: religion paradoxically “makes…and unmakes …prejudice” (and apparently also scapegoating, oppression, war, and militarism). Yet our measures illuminate how deep the paradox is: while prayer and exclusive attachment to the dogmas of one’s faith are strongly related, one predicts peace and the other predicts war. Religion, cheered and vilified as much as human nature itself, appears to be just as complex. References Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, Mass: Addison-Wesley. Allport, G. W. & Ross, J. M. (1967). Personal religious orientation and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5, 432-43. Using data from the United Nations and Freedom House, we assessed 10 nations on demographics suggestive of war and oppression, and then predicted variation in individual-level exclusivity and regular prayer based on each of these demographics. (1)Would you say you pray... [regularly = 1, other response = 0] (2) My God (beliefs) is the only true God (beliefs) [agree = 1, other response = 0] (3)I blame people of other religions for much of the trouble in this world. [agree = 1, other response = 0] Unlike orthogonal intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity in the religion and prejudice literature (Allport & Ross, 1967), prayer and exclusivity were positively correlated in the BBC sample, often strongly. Catholic: r(1644) =.26*** Orthodox: r(832)=.31*** Other Xian: r(2234)=.38*** Jewish: r(866) =.39*** Hindu: r(1003) =.17*** Muslim: r(1962) =.07** Buddhist: r(254) =.21** Atheist: r(856) =.14*** All: r(10068) =.40*** Yet when prayer and exclusivity were included in multiple regression (logistic) to predict scapegoating (controlling for national rank in GDP/capita, age and sex), exclusivists were 30% more likely to scapegoat than non- exclusivists, while those who did NOT pray regularly were 50% more likely to scapegoat than those who did. Both of these effects were highly significant, p <.001. This study is based on an analysis of a survey conducted in 2004 by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on representative samples in the US, UK, Israel, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Nigeria, Mexico, Russia and Lebanon. Roughly 1000 from each country participated (total 10068). This study focuses on responses to the following items, the first two indicating ways of being religious (devotion or exclusivity), the third indicating scapegoating: ** p <.01 *** p <.001