Does religiosity predict prejudice in Eastern cultures and religions too?
(2012) International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conference — Location: Stellenbosh, South-Africa (17.July.2012)
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- 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 (perceived as a tolerant religion/spirituality) and Eastern Asian cultures (characterized more by holistic thinking)? We will here review 3 recent studies conducted both in Asia and Europe. In Study 1, we found that religiosity was negatively related to religious prejudice but positively related to anti-gay prejudice among Asians from a Buddhist/Taoist tradition living in three Asian countries (ISSP data). However, in Study 2, conducted among Asian Buddhists living in the West, religiosity was positively linked to all three kinds of prejudice: ethnic (Africans), religious (Muslims/Hindus), and anti-gay. Finally, in Study 3, using implicit measures of prejudice (IAT), religiosity was negatively related to religious prejudice (Muslims) and unrelated to ethnic prejudice (Africans, only positively linked to authoritarianism) among Taiwanese people from a Buddhist/Taoist tradition. These results suggest that Eastern religiosity seems not to predict prejudice as it is the case with Western religiosity, except for anti-gay prejudice. The divergent results of Study 2 can be explained by the fact that Asian Buddhists in the West constitute a minority, which possibly exacerbate ingroup/outgroup discrimination.
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Clobert, M., & Saroglou, V. (2012). Does religiosity predict prejudice in Eastern cultures and religions too? International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conference, Stellenbosh, South-Africa. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/61813