| Abstract: |
Most religions teach individuals to "love thy neighbor" where "neighbor" extends to out-group members. To date, the love thy neighbor hypothesis, which posits that religiosity is associated with tolerance toward out-group members, has been tested indirectly by examining religiosity's association with negative (prejudiced) attitudes. The present study directly tested the love thy neighbor hypothesis by examining religiosity's association with positive attitudes toward out-groups once statistically controlling for right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), a measure of cognitive rigidity and a known mediator of the relationship between religiosity and prejudice. Two hundred forty-nine adult Americans completed measures of religiosity and allophilia, a measure of positive attitudes toward members of an out-group. Mediation path analyses revealed that RWA aggression, a subcomponent of RWA that measures a cognitively rigid ideology, fully mediated the relationship between religiosity and positive attitudes toward ethnic/racial out-groups (Arabs, African Americans, and Hispanics). This positive association between religiosity and positive attitudes toward ethnic/racial out-groups suggests that religiosity is associated with loving some neighbors. Both RWA aggression and RWA conventionalism (a subcomponent of RWA that measures traditional cognitive rigidity) fully mediated the relationship between religiosity and positive attitudes toward value-violating out-groups (lesbians, gay men, and atheists). Religiosity showed no association with attitudes toward value-violating out-groups once controlling for these rigid ideologies, providing partial support for the love thy neighbor hypothesis. Implications of the present results for understanding how religiosity can be associated with and even promote tolerance toward out-groups are discussed. © 2013 American Psychological Association. |
