Analytic Thinking, Religion, and Prejudice

The relation between and the intersection of religion and analytic thinking are complex and intransigently debated topic in the both social psychology and cognitive science literature for a decade. Moreover, the idea that religions facilitate acts that cause the negative attitudes toward especially religious out-groups has relatively a long theoretical and empirical history in social psychology (Allport & Ross, 1967; Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1992; Spilka, 1986; Whitley & Bernard,1999) and is the main idea behind the evolutionary origins of religion (Atran & Heinrich, 2010; Bering, 2011; Norenzayan & Shariff, 2008; Preston & Ritter, 2013; Rand et al., 2014; Shariff & Norenzayan, 2007; Sosis & Alcorta, 2003) which is generally explained by the concept of cooperation of genetically unrelated people, who will later become an in-group member. Thus, highly religious people are thought to be more prejudiced toward religious out-groups as well as different out-groups defined by ethnicity or sexual orientation than less religious or irreligious people (Rowatt & Franklin, 2004) because their in-group identifications are high.

I address -in this paper- three empirical questions about the connection between analytic thinking, religion and prejudice. 1) Does analytic thinking override intuitive thinking and decrease belief in a personal God 2) Does religion promote prejudice? And 3) Does analytic thinking decrease prejudice? In examining these three questions, I present a three-factor model that explains the connection between analytic thinking, religion and prejudice as the outcome of low-level intuitions which elicit religious belief and prejudice.

The Dual Process Theory

Not surprisingly, in the quotation given at th...

... middle of paper ...

...CH: Christian Orthodoxy, Religious Fundamentalism, and Right-Wing Authoritarianism as Predictors of Implicit Racial Prejudice. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 14(2), 125-138.

Shariff, A. F., & Norenzayan, A. (2007). God Is Watching You Priming God Concepts Increases Prosocial Behavior in an Anonymous Economic Game.Psychological Science, 18(9), 803-809.

Sosis, R., & Alcorta, C. (2003). Signaling, solidarity, and the sacred: The evolution of religious behavior. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 12(6), 264-274.

Spilka, B. (1986). The meaning of personal faith: A continuing research odyssey. Journal of Psychology and Christianity.

Whitley, B. J. ve Bernard, E. (1999). Right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance

orientation, and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 126 –134.