Religion and prejudice in Eastern culture: An analysis of ISSP data.

Studies constantly show positive correlations between religiosity and prejudice. However, this relationship was found only through Western cultures and religions. As Eastern cultures display a holistic thinking style and Buddhism is generally perceived as tolerant, the generalisability of such findings is doubtful. We retrieved data’s from the Religion III module (2008) of the International Social Survey Program. We examined the relationship between religiosity and two kind of prejudice (anti-gay/religious) in three Asian countries (South-Korea/Japan/Taiwan) and throughout three religious groups: Buddhism, Taoism and Other East Asian Religions. Religious identification was positively correlated with anti-gay prejudice in Buddhism and OEAR. This link was mediated by sexual morality and traditional gender roles. Religiosity, except for fundamentalists, was negatively related to religious prejudice for those three groups. However, for Protestants and Catholics among these countries, the correlations between religiosity and both kind of prejudice were positives. This difference suggests a religion-specific effect on prejudice