Exploring the Enigmatic Link between Religion and Anti‐Black Attitudes

Abstract

This review explores social psychological perspectives on the complex relationship between religion and anti-Black prejudice in the United States. We examine the different ways in which religiosity has been conceptualized by behavioral scientists. We consider the methodological limitations of previous research, as well as how the advent of priming research introduces new empirical questions regarding religiosity and anti-Black prejudice, such as whether activation of different religious conceptions (e.g., God versus religion) or priming via different types of stimuli (e.g., words versus images) produces different outcomes. Finally, we discuss the lack of diverse samples in the present literature and highlight the need for additional research with Black American respondents. Conclusions consider the real world implications of links between religion and anti-Blackness for both White individuals (e.g., intergroup relations) and Black individuals (e.g., psychological functioning).

Racialized Religion and Judicial Injustice: How Whiteness and Biblicist Christianity Intersect to Promote a Preference for (Unjust) Punishment

“…However, our findings document how conservative Christianity, which also perceives the world through threats to a sacralized, traditional social order (Baker and Booth 2016; Davis 2018; Hunter 2010; Perry and Whitehead 2020), may play a powerful―but rarely acknowledged―role in activating and intensifying whites’ inclination to react against such perceived threats, causing them to suspend a general preference for protecting the innocent, so long as problem (implied minority) populations are controlled. As various experimental studies show, religious concepts consistently prime anti‐black prejudice and may also activate related constructs that lead to anti‐black prejudice and desire for punitive control (Howard and Sommers 2015; Johnson, Rowatt, and LaBouff 2010).…”

“…First, our data are cross‐sectional and as such we cannot definitively determine causal relationships. Using research designs that allow for testing causal relationships at the intersection of religion, race, and punitive attitudes continues to be of importance (Howard and Sommers 2015). Second, the most significant limitation we faced was how prior waves of the GSS measured race and ethnicity.…”

“Jesus was a White man too!”: The relationship between beliefs about Jesus’s race, racial attitudes, and ideologies that maintain racial hierarchies.

“…Social and behavioral scientists in the United States argue that the way individuals conceptualize the divine reflect their explicit and implicit moral and philosophical worldviews (Froese & Bader, 2010; Howard et al, 2018; Heiphetz et al, 2016). Because portrayals of Jesus as White have been theorized as symbols that assist the maintenance and reinforcement of White supremacy 1 (i.e., racial hierarchy; Salter & Haugen, 2017) due to the association of Godliness with Whiteness (Akbar, 1996; Blay, 2011; Howard & Sommers, 2015, Roberts et al, 2020; Williams, 1987), in the current study, we explore whether beliefs about Jesus’s race are related to individuals’ racial attitudes and ideologies that maintain racial hierarchies using a quasi-experimental design.…”

God as a White man: A psychological barrier to conceptualizing Black people and women as leadership worthy.

“…Regardless of whether the depiction of God as a White man was in fact used in the United States as a tool to reinforce social hierarchy, empirical research suggests that the conception of God as a White man may indeed do so, even among Black people and women. In a series of seminal studies, social psychologist Simon Howard found that exposure to White religious iconography (e.g., White Jesus) increased Black Americans’ pro-White attitudes, and that this effect was predicted by exposure to White Jesus, rather than exposure to White men more broadly, suggesting that attributing a race to a supernatural entity uniquely predicted racial prejudice (Howard & Sommers, 2015, 2017, 2019; see also Johnson, Rowatt, & LaBouff, 2010). Relatedly, Howard, Oswald, and Kirkman (2018) found that individuals who conceptualized God as male (i.e., most of their participants) reported higher levels of fundamentalism and authoritarianism, which are known predictors of pro-White and promale attitudes (Sherkat, 2017; Sibley & Duckitt, 2008).…”