Questism and its Relationship to Religion, Legal Decisions, and Psychological Attributions

Batson and Ventis (1982) introduced a religious dimension known as Questism. This dimension is measured by its characteristics of inquiry, doubt, openness to ideas, and religion. This article will review past definitions of Quest and provide a thorough investigation of behaviors and overall beliefs of individuals considered being on a Quest, as well as a comparison to other religious beliefs. Students of the University of Nevada, Reno were asked to participate in four studies conducted by individuals within the Department of Criminal Justice to establish the relationships between Quest and personal characteristics (e.g., forgiveness), psychology (e.g., attributions) and behaviors (e.g., jury decisions, parole decision and general legal attitudes). The results of these studies show that there are relationships between Quest and other religious characteristics (i.e., fundamentalism is negatively related to Quest), as well as to personal characteristics such as forgiveness and perceptions (i.e., persons on a Quests view perceive others as more believable, honest, and credible than those that are not), as well as in psychology (i.e., why does a person on Quest do things differently than those who are not?), and behavior (i.e., those who are on a Quest are more likely to grant parole). The purpose of the results from these studies is to offer a new definition of Quest; one reflective of new beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, attributions and implications on law. By providing this in depth definition of Quest, there is a valuable advancement to the fields of religious studies, psychology, and law and psychology