Facets of Right‐Wing Authoritarianism Mediate the Relationship Between Religious Fundamentalism and Attitudes Toward Arabs and African Americans

Abstract

Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, hate crimes against Arabs have increased in the United States. Despite recent increases in anti-Arab attitudes, little psychological research has been conducted to understand this prejudice. Across two studies, we tested a theoretical model of Arab and African-American prejudice. We found the aggression facet of right-wing authoritarianism mediated the relationship between religious fundamentalism (RF) and prejudice toward Arabs and African Americans. Results are interpreted in light of previous research on cognitive rigidity, RF, and prejudice, and implications are made for political leaders conversing about Arab nations and peoples.

Negative Affectivity, Authoritarianism, and Anxiety of Infection Explain Early Maladjusted Behavior During the COVID-19 Outbreak

“…In this sense, it is plausible that a critical event like the COVID-19 epidemic -by eliciting anxiety and fear -would increase RWA. Much research provides evidence for a mediating role of RWA, for instance previous studies found that RWA mediates the relationship between religious fundamentalism and attitudes toward specific minority groups (Johnson et al, 2012), between religious fundamentalism and racism (Johnson et al, 2011), and between dangerous world beliefs (such as "Any day now chaos and anarchy could erupt around us" and "There are many dangerous people in our society who will attack someone out of pure meanness, for no reason at all"; Altemeyer, 1988) and attitudes toward human rights/civil liberties (Crowson, 2009). It is, thus, plausible that RWA would mediate the relationship between a stable independent variable (e.g., NA) and maladjusted behavior.…”

The (Non) Religion of Mechanical Turk Workers

“…Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) marketplace has increasingly become a useful resource for experimental researchers seeking adult convenience samples. Because it offers a low-cost, timely turnaround for survey responses (and other tasks), there has been a proliferation of especially experimental work in the social sciences using MTurk data, including work on religion (e.g., Johnson et al 2012;McLaughlin and Wise 2014). While analyses of MTurk have rightly presented evidence of both its opportunities for social science research and necessary cautions, to date scholars have largely overlooked one aspect of MTurk samples-religion.…”

God Values the Lives of My Out-Group More Than I Do: Evidence From Fiji and Israel

“…Theorists have long highlighted religion's paradoxical role in intergroup relations (Allport, 1954;Ng & Gervais, 2016). A half-century of research suggests that certain aspects of religion (e.g., fundamentalism, coalitional motives) promote intergroup intolerance, whereas others (e.g., intrinsic belief, value signaling) promote intergroup tolerance (e.g., Allport & Ross, 1967;Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 2005;Everett, Haque, & Rand, 2016;Ginges, Hansen, & Norenzayan, 2009;Hall, Cohen, Meyer, Varley, & Brewer, 2015;Hunsberger & Jackson, 2005; M. K. Johnson, Labouff, Rowatt, Patock-Peckham, & Carlisle, 2012;Neuberg et al, 2014).…”