An analysis of the relationships between religious orientation, authoritarianism, cross cultural interactions, and political views.

Abstract

This study investigated the connections between religious ideology, authoritarianism, intergroup relations, and political orientation. Building from the psychological literature on religious belief, the current study sought to explore the extent of these relationships using a university sample from the American South. The Diverse Learning Environments survey was administered to undergraduate students, with 2,582 responding. Variables of interest were religious belief, authoritarianism, intergroup relation views, diversity-related actions, and political views. Results suggest that while general religious orientation did not correlate positively with authoritarianism, Christians, specifically those associated with Evangelical groups, displayed greater authoritarianism than non-believers and reported fewer diversity-related interactions. While results indicated that more salient religious identity was associated with right-leaning political beliefs, an unexpected finding was that non-belief was associated with greater political involvement. These results suggest patterns of ingroup favoritism among conservative Christians which may lead to outgroup derogation and influence voting patterns.