Conforming to the will of the church: The role of religious orientation, religious proscription, and right-wing authoritarianism in the religion-prejudice relationship

Study 1 was designed to determine the relationships between three religious orientations and three measures of prejudice. Contrary to previous findings, religious Quest (Q) was not negatively correlated with 2 measures of ethnocentrism. However, the associations among dependent measures of religiously proscribed and nonproscribed prejudices, and Intrinsic (I) and Extrinsic (E) religious orientations, supported previous findings. Study 1 also was intended to examine the role of “right-wing authoritarianism” (RWA) and “social desirability’ (SD) in the religion-prejudice relationship. Contrary to Batson, Schoenrade, and Ventis (1993), no correlational evidence was found to support the hypothesis that highly intrinsic believers are prone to responding in a socially desirable way on overt questionnaire measures of prejudice, however, RWA was positively related to I. When the effect of RWA was controlled in a partial correlation procedure, the negative correlation between self-reported I and ethnocentrism became significantly stronger, while a positive relationship between self-reported I and nonproscribed prejudice was eliminated. Partial correlations between E, Q, and prejudice shifted in a “more prejudiced” direction for both proscribed and nonproscribed measures of prejudice. Study 2 compared behavioural prejudice responses (choosing a black vs. white, and homosexual vs. heterosexual interviewer) with measures of prejudice from Study 1. For proscribed prejudice, self- reported ethnocentrism was not a predictor of discrimination. For nonproscribed prejudice, choosing a heterosexual over a homosexual interviewer was associated with self-reported homophobic attitudes. Finally, results of Study 2 did not support our hypothesis that the I-prejudice relationship is mediated by authoritarian (RWA) attitudes