In general, the more devout a community, the greater the racism, according to the authors of new analysis, led by Wendy Wood, Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at USC College and the USC Marshall School of Business.
Hat-tip Polycarp:-
Study Links Religious Groups and Racial Bias
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus warned religious listeners against what today would be called “ingroup prejudice”: the tendency to think less of outsiders, especially those of another race.
The Samaritan, a member of a group despised by Israelites of that time, proves himself more charitable to an injured traveler than two members of the Jewish clergy.
Devout listeners startled by the Samaritan’s charity would have had to confront a difficult message: Piety and prejudice keep close company.
It appears not much has changed.
A meta-analysis of 55 independent studies carried out in the United States with more than 20,000 mostly Christian participants has found that members of religious congregations tend to harbor prejudiced views of other races.
In general, the more devout the community, the greater the racism, according to the authors of the analysis, led by Wendy Wood, Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at USC College and the USC Marshall School of Business. The study appears in the February issue of Personality and Social Psychology Review.
“Religious groups distinguish between believers and non-believers and moral people and immoral ones,” Wood said. “So perhaps it’s no surprise that the strongly religious people in our research, who were mostly white Christians, discriminated against others who were different from them — blacks and minorities.”
Most of the studies reviewed by Wood’s team focused on Christians because Christianity is the most common religion in the United States.
Her analysis found significantly less racism among people without strong religious beliefs.
Rather depressing if true.
Tags: Christian Life
March 6th, 2010 at 8:45 pm
Depressing, indeed. Sadly, this marries all too well with my own experience debating the status of women on this blog. However prettily they tried to dress it up, the message from those whom I imagine would define themselves as strongly religious was plain ugly. I gave up in the end.
Although racism and sexism aren’t exact parallels (racists don’t live with the people they despise) the experience for the recipient is very similar. It is horrible to face the fact that there are still some people who define you by your “inferior” sex/colour.
Thank you for publicising this disturbing research. It demands Christian attention – and action.
March 7th, 2010 at 12:37 am
“Most of the studies reviewed by Wood’s team focused on Christians because Christianity is the most common religion in the United States.”
Bad science here.
The group association is not because they are christians but because they are in fact a group – good science.