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Explaining Unfavorable Attitudes Toward Religious Out‐Groups Among Three Major Religions
Author(s) -
Kanol Eylem
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal for the scientific study of religion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1468-5906
pISSN - 0021-8294
DOI - 10.1111/jssr.12725
Subject(s) - fundamentalism , religiosity , prejudice (legal term) , hostility , social psychology , globe , socioeconomic status , perspective (graphical) , religious belief , sociology , islam , psychology , religious studies , political science , gender studies , demography , geography , law , politics , population , philosophy , epistemology , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , computer science , archaeology
Considering intensifying sectarian conflicts in recent years and increasing interreligious violence around the globe, there is a need to further our understanding of negative attitudes toward religious out‐groups. To investigate the driving factors behind these negative attitudes among members of the three major Abrahamic religions, I employ original data derived from a survey fielded among 10,046 respondents in eight countries (Cyprus, Germany, Israel, Kenya, Lebanon, Palestine, Turkey, and the USA). A rich body of literature documents the relationship between religious fundamentalism and prejudice. Other scholars have investigated out‐group hostility using an intergroup relations perspective, focusing on contact theory, and more recently, on discrimination. While controlling for other relevant factors such as demographic and socioeconomic variables, I investigate the role of religiosity and intergroup relations in explaining unfavorable interreligious attitudes. The results suggest that unfavorable attitudes toward religious out‐groups are most strongly associated with religious fundamentalism. This finding is robust across religious groups.