Identification, Prejudice, and Aggression

Dor-Shav, Netta Kohn; Friedman, Bruria; Tcherbonogura, Rachel

doi:10.1080/00224545.1978.9924063

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Results of these studies provide conflicting evidence regarding the role of religiosity in overt aggressive behavior, with positive, inverse, and no relationships reported. For example, Dor‐Shav, Friedman, and Tcherbonogura (1978) found that administering shock levels to a fictitious opponent increased if a respondent answering incorrectly was not a member of the participant's religious or secular group. Rule, Haley, and McCormack (1971) found that anti‐Semitism was not associated with the level of shock administered to an experimental confederate.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Religious Activities, Religious Orientation, and Aggressive Behavior

Leach¹,

Berman²,

Eubanks³

2008

Scientific Study of Religion

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Theorists and clinicians have long believed that religious practice may reduce aggression and other destructive behaviors. To date, most evidence for a relationship between religiosity and aggression comes from nonexperimental studies. The purpose of this exploratory study was twofold. First, to examine experimentally whether two religious practices reduce aggressive behavior; second, to determine if specific aspects of religious orientation and spiritual transcendence are related to level of aggression, expressed under controlled laboratory conditions. Sixty-two participants assigned to one of three experimental groups (memorize Bible passages, prayer/meditation, or control group) completed a laboratory task of aggression. Participants also completed religious and spirituality instruments, along with self-ratings of aggressive disposition. Results indicated that neither memorization of biblical passages nor meditation reduced aggression. Intrinsic-oriented religiosity participants self-reported lower aggression than extrinsic-oriented participants, but no differences were found on the laboratory task of aggression. Spiritual transcendence showed no behavioral aggression differences.It is difficult to peruse the media and not become aware that there has been an increase in religious, ethnic, and national conflicts over the past two decades. Surprisingly, little is known about the empirical relationship between religious identification and aggression. Religion has been used to justify aggressive behaviors over the course of history, yet little is known about the relationship between religious practices and aggression. The major religions espouse peace and nonaggression, yet the practical utility of these religious teachings has received only minimal attention. In other words, do religious practices and spiritual attitudes decrease aggressive behaviors?Since Allport and Ross's (1967) seminal article in which they proposed the concepts of intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation (I/E), there has been a significant amount of research, revision, and debate surrounding the construct. Simplified, self-reported intrinsically oriented individuals live their faith (e.g., I try to live my life by what God wants) whereas extrinsically oriented individuals use their faith for personal gain (e.g., I feel good when I go to church). There has been recent reconsideration of the concept (Laythe, Finkel, and Kirkpatrick 2001) but it continues as one of the more popular means of distinguishing types of religious orientation in the psychology of religion literature. When related to aggression, because intrinsic individuals purport to live their faith, it would be expected that they would be less likely to respond vengefully than extrinsic individuals if placed in a potentially aggressive behavioral situation. This reduced vengeance should be particularly salient if people recently engaged in religious rituals designed to cue their faith (e.g., recent reading of a religious text or meditation). Conversely, given that extrinsic in...

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Religious Activities, Religious Orientation, and Aggressive Behavior

Leach¹,

Berman²,

Eubanks³

2008

Scientific Study of Religion

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Accordingly, when that fundamental sense of self is questioned by the presence of an alternative religious program, a reaction may be engendered due to an unconsciously perceived threat to one's ontological status. Dor-Shav, Friedman and Tcherbonogura (1978) illustrated this dynamic in their simulated shock-delivery study. These researchers found that self-identified secular individuals (N = 20) unconsciously administered higher levels of shock to religious persons than secular persons when both groups answered questions incorrectly.…”

Section: Affects When Addressing Spiritualitymentioning

confidence: 98%

Equally Devout, but Do They Speak the Same Language? Comparing the Religious Beliefs and Practices of Social Workers and the General Public

Hodge

2002

Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Service

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While the profession is witnessing growing interest in addressing consumers' spiritual and religious strengths, no studies have explicitly sought to compare the religious values of social workers with those of the general public. This study uses a nationally representative data set, the General Social Survey, to compare the beliefs and practices of graduate-level (n = 53) and bachelor-level (n = 92) social workers with those of the lower, working, and middle classes. The results suggest that the contents of belief systems differ, particularly between graduate workers and the lower and working classes, with social workers being more likely to endorse liberal religious beliefs. Yet, while the belief systems differed, there was little variation in expression, as social workers were roughly as likely to attend services and consider themselves strong adherents of their faith as members of the lower, working, and middle classes. The paper concludes by discussing some of the implications of the difference in belief systems.

show abstract

“…This series of studies suggests that scripture and the presentation of God as sanctioning violence may increase aggressive behavior in both religious and secular individuals. A similar study suggested that both religious and secular individuals administered increased shock levels in a competitive reaction time task if the fictitious opponent was not a member of the participant's own group (Dor-Shav, Friedman and Tcherbonogura, 1978). Selengut (2008) argues that doctrine is a cause of violence in the case of Palestine and Israel and concepts such as just war theory and liberation theology seem to use doctrine in order to justify violence in some cases (Hasenclever and Rittberger, 2000).…”

Section: Religion As Post-hoc Justificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empirical Perspectives on Religion and Violence

Wright

Khoo

2019

CVIR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The 'religion as cause' argument implies that religious faiths are more inherently prone to violence than ideologies that are secular. Following an evaluation of the scientific literature on religion and violence, we argue that wherever evidence links specific aspects of religion with aggression and violence, these aspects are not unique to religion. Rather, these aspects are religious variants of more general psychological processes. Further, there are numerous aspects of religion that buffer against aggression and violence among its adherents. The most distinct feature of religion, supernaturalism, is not often the focus of researchers of religion and violence. Despite this, the paucity of research that has been conducted on this key feature suggests that supernaturalism is associated with reduced aggression and violence. There appears to be very little support for the notion that there is something uniquely religious that causes violence among followers.

show abstract

Identification, Prejudice, and Aggression

Cited by 11 publications

References 3 publications

Religious Activities, Religious Orientation, and Aggressive Behavior

Religious Activities, Religious Orientation, and Aggressive Behavior

Equally Devout, but Do They Speak the Same Language? Comparing the Religious Beliefs and Practices of Social Workers and the General Public

Empirical Perspectives on Religion and Violence

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About