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      Tolerating the “doubting Thomas”: how centrality of religious beliefs vs. practices influences prejudice against atheists

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          Abstract

          Past research has found a robust effect of prejudice against atheists in largely Christian-dominated (belief-oriented) samples. We propose that religious centrality of beliefs vs. practices influences attitudes toward atheists, such that religious groups emphasizing beliefs perceive non-believers more negatively than believers, while groups emphasizing practices perceive non-practicing individuals more negatively than practicing individuals. Studies 1–2, in surveys of 41 countries, found that Muslims and Protestants (belief-oriented) had more negative attitudes toward atheists than did Jews and Hindus (practice-oriented). Study 3 experimentally manipulated a target individual's beliefs and practices. Protestants had more negative attitudes toward a non-believer (vs. a believer), whereas Jews had more negative attitudes toward a non-practicing individual (vs. a practicing individual, particularly when they had a Jewish background). This research has implications for the psychology of religion, anti-atheist prejudice, and cross-cultural attitudes regarding where dissent in beliefs or practices may be tolerated or censured within religious groups.

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          Most cited references22

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          Authoritarianism, Religious Fundamentalism, Quest, and Prejudice

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            Atheists As "Other": Moral Boundaries and Cultural Membership in American Society

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              Cultural differences are not always reducible to individual differences.

              We show that differences in social orientation and in cognition that exist between cultures and social classes do not necessarily have counterparts in individual differences within those groups. Evidence comes from a large-scale study conducted with 10 measures of independent vs. interdependent social orientation and 10 measures of analytic vs. holistic cognitive style. The social measures successfully distinguish between interdependence (viewing oneself as embedded in relations with others) and independence (viewing oneself as disconnected from others) at the group level. However, the correlations among the measures were negligible. Similar results were obtained for the cognitive measures, for which there are no coherent individual differences despite the validity of the construct at the group level. We conclude that behavioral constructs that distinguish among groups need not be valid as measures of individual differences.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Psychol
                Front Psychol
                Front. Psychol.
                Frontiers in Psychology
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1664-1078
                08 September 2015
                2015
                : 6
                : 1352
                Affiliations
                [1] 1Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo Waterloo, ON, Canada
                [2] 2Department of Psychology, Arizona State University Tempe, AZ, USA
                Author notes

                Edited by: Michael W. Kraus, Yale University, USA

                Reviewed by: Umar Toseeb, University of Manchester, UK; Melissa Marie McDonald, Michigan State University, USA; Wing-Yee Cheung, University of Southampton, UK

                *Correspondence: Jeffrey Hughes and Igor Grossmann, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada j4hughes@ 123456uwaterloo.ca ; igrossma@ 123456uwaterloo.ca

                This article was submitted to Personality and Social Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology

                Article
                10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01352
                4561750
                5b1f1be2-cb3d-47d8-b7e3-4df6e68b66f9
                Copyright © 2015 Hughes, Grossmann and Cohen.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 15 May 2015
                : 24 August 2015
                Page count
                Figures: 4, Tables: 5, Equations: 0, References: 34, Pages: 10, Words: 7588
                Categories
                Psychology
                Original Research

                Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
                anti-atheist prejudice,cultural differences,religion,beliefs,practices

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