Are Buddhists tolerant? A study on religiosity and ethnic, religious, and sexual prejudice among Asian Buddhists in the West.
(2011) Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Conference — Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin (28.October.2011)
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- Abstract
- The link between several religious dimensions and many kinds of prejudice (ethnic, religious, against gays and atheists) has been established at least in Western cultural and religious contexts. Does this also hold for Buddhism (believed to be a tolerant religion/spirituality) and Eastern Asian cultures (characterized more by holistic thinking)? In the present study, we administered (self-reported) measures of various aspects of religiosity and different kinds of prejudice in Asians (from China, Japan, and Thailand) of Buddhist tradition, all living in Belgium. Overall, Buddhists' religiosity was found to relate positively to all kinds of prejudice, i.e. ethnic (against Americans and Africans), religious (against Taoists, Hindus, and Muslims), and towards gays and atheists. However, a negative association between Buddhist religious measures and prejudice was found when the targets were members of the "hosting" outgroups, i.e. Europeans and Christians. Results suggest that the religion-prejudice link may be more universal than initially thought.
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Clobert, M., & Saroglou, V. (2011). Are Buddhists tolerant? A study on religiosity and ethnic, religious, and sexual prejudice among Asian Buddhists in the West. Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/60874