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Globalization, Contact, and Religious Identity: A Cross‐National Analysis of Interreligious Favorability *
Author(s) -
Ciftci Sabri,
Nawaz Muhammad Asif,
Sydiq Tareq
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/ssqu.12221
Subject(s) - globalization , salience (neuroscience) , globe , religious identity , social psychology , contact theory , national identity , sociology , test (biology) , psychology , political science , religiosity , law , politics , paleontology , structural engineering , neuroscience , cognitive psychology , biology , engineering
Objectives This article examines cross‐national variation in interreligious favorability across the globe. We develop and test several hypotheses linking globalization to attitudes toward the religious other through mechanisms of religious belonging and contact. Methods Utilizing cross‐national data in 20 countries from the Pew Global Attitudes Surveys (2011), we run a series of multilevel and logistic regression estimations to test our hypotheses about global contact, religious identity, and interreligious favorability. Results We find that global contact has a positive effect on interreligious favorability, whereas holding religious identity increases negative sentiments toward religious outgroups. We also find that increased levels of globalization inhibit the negative impact of religious belonging and threat perceptions on favorable views of the religious other. Conclusion Although globalization increases the salience of religion as an exclusive identity category at the expense of decreased interreligious favorability, individuals become more conducive to interreligious tolerance thanks to frequent social contact at higher levels of globalization.