Thinking about God Discourages Dehumanization of Religious Outgroups

Abstract

In this paper we report studies in which we investigated the relationship between religious cognition and dehumanization of religious outgroup members. Dehumanization is a key feature of intergroup conflict, and many argue that belief in moralizing gods promotes a distinctly parochial altruism which excludes or even encourages conflict with non-believers. In six studies, five with American Christians and one with Israeli Jews (total N = 1,548), we find that belief in moralizing gods discourages dehumanization of ethno-religious outgroups. Across studies, participants completed measures of dehumanization from their own perspectives and also from the perspective of God, rating the groups’ humanity as they thought God would rate it or wish for them to rate it. When participants completed measures from both their own and God’s perspectives, they reported believing that, compared with their own views, God would see (or prefer for them to see) outgroup members as more human. Results demonstrate that religious believers attribute universalizing moral attitudes to God, compared to themselves, and document how belief in God can promote more positive intergroup attitudes.

Palestinians and Israelis believe the other's God encourages intergroup benevolence: A case of positive intergroup meta-perceptions

“…Influential theorizing suggests that such beliefs may have spread by facilitating a A CASE OF POSITIVE INTERGROUP META-PERCEPTIONS decidedly parochial form of prosociality, perhaps aiding such groups in intergroup conflict (Norenzayan et al, 2016). While the present research cannot resolve questions about the emergence and spread of belief in moralizing deities, we note that the positive second-order beliefs about the role of religious belief in intergroup relations observed in the present research are consistent with emerging evidence demonstrating how first-order religious beliefs actually can promote intergroup prosociality (e.g., Pasek et al, 2023) and increase the value placed on outgroup members' lives (Ginges et al, 2016;Pasek et al, 2020;Smith et al, 2022). The second type of implication flows from the first.…”

Dehumanization: trends, insights, and challenges

“…Presenting individuals with counter-stereotypical outgroup exemplars has also been shown to reduce outgroup infrahumanization [117]. Other work has tempered participants' blatant dehumanization by asking religious individuals to evaluate outgroup members 'from God's perspective' [118]. We encourage future work to explore the durability and generalizability of interventions addressing both blatant and subtle dehumanization.…”

Outlier Evidence of Mutually Positive Intergroup Perceptions During Asymmetric Conflict

“…For example, religiosity positively predicts Christian Americans' financial generosity to atheists (Everett et al, 2016) and, even when religious leaders or institutions promote parochialism, God primes can motivate intergroup prosociality (Preston & Ritter, 2013). Cross-cultural experiments demonstrate that thinking about God promotes intergroup generosity (Pasek et al, in press) and, even in high conflict settings, people believe God prefers them to view religious outgroup members as more human and value their lives more (Ginges et al, 2016;Pasek et al, 2020;Smith et al, 2021).…”