Home, religion, and fatherland: explaining the link between religiosity and prejudice in western societies

Christianity, including Protestantism and Catholicism, has been the reigning religion for centuries in Western Europe. Nevertheless, Europe and Finland have become increasingly secular and culturally diverse through Islamic migration. In the aftermath of 9/11, research on attitudes towards Muslims has become one of the most popular topics in social sciences. It is thus not surprising that there is a plethora of research on religiosity and prejudice produced in the last 20 years with a particular focus on attitudes towards Muslims. Although stereotypically, believers are considered more conservative and anti-immigrant, believers may perceive the threat of increasing secularity as more threatening than religious diversity.

This PhD contributes to the study of the religiosity-prejudice link in Western Europe. It studies majority members’ attitudes towards religious and non-religious majority members but also simultaneously their attitudes towards religious minorities with a focus on Muslims. I approached religiosity (and non-religiosity) as a worldview and identity; my main point of departure for my studies is the social identity approach combined with intergroup threat theory.

I investigated the status of the religiosity and prejudice link in the West among believing and non-believing majority members and Muslims. I sought to answer the following questions: what factors play a role in the link between religiosity and prejudice in Western receiving societies? Which factors alleviate or increase negative out-group attitudes? To answer these questions, I first explored the role of religious identification, religious orientations, and (non)religious worldview in modifying attitudinal outcomes of (non)religiosity. I also asked what psychological mechanisms explain the link between identification and attitudes. Here I specifically focused on religious and national identification in interreligious relations and the role of identity motives, perceived threats, and morality in explaining the out-group attitudes among believers and non-believers.

My main findings align with previous research showing that the content of identities (e.g., religious vs. national), the form of religiosity (e.g., identity vs. worldview), and perceived threats shape out-group attitudes. It brings together crucial theoretical work from the social psychology of intergroup relations and the psychology of religion, which are often separated. I found that 1) when assessing direct associations, higher levels of religious identification is associated with more positive out-group attitudes towards religious out-groups such as Muslims, while 2) a (non)religious worldview as such is less central in out-group attitudes, 3) when assessing indirect associations, both religious and national identification are associated with negative out-group attitudes through higher levels of perceived diversity threat, and 4) intergroup processes such as perceived threats and in-group moral superiority explain the link between religiosity and out-group attitudes, whereas identity motives are less central.