Religion, Meaning, and Prejudice

TLDR

Links between religion and prejudice suggest that religion can both reduce and exacerbate prejudice. The study analyzes religion as a meaning system to explain how it can promote or attenuate prejudice, proposing four levels of meaning and exploring factors that allow religious egalitarian intentions to coexist with prejudice. The authors review traditional psychological perspectives and cross‑cultural contexts, then propose four levels of meaning—cognitive, motivational, societal, and intergroup—as mechanisms linking religion to prejudice. They identify factors that enable religious egalitarian intentions to coexist with prejudice and speculate that religious groups could reduce prejudice among their adherents.

Abstract

Links between religion and prejudice have been interpreted to suggest that religion can both reduce and exacerbate prejudice. Here, the analysis of religion as a meaning system illuminates how religion can affect intergroup attitudes. Traditional psychological perspectives on religion and prejudice are summarized, followed by a discussion of religion and prejudice in cross‐cultural and cross‐religious contexts, involving varying target groups. Next, we explore possible explanatory mechanisms by proposing how four levels of meaning associated with religion—cognitive, motivational, societal, and intergroup—may both promote and attenuate prejudice. Finally, additional factors that might facilitate the paradoxical coexistence of religious egalitarian intentions with prejudiced attitudes are considered, and we speculate about the potential for religious groups to reduce prejudice within their adherents.