This is a guest post by Kitty Holman.
A very recent study conducted at Baylor University and published in a new journal founded in January 2010, Social Psychological and Personality Science, suggests that Christian religious concepts may have the inadvertent effect of making people more disposed to racism, specifically with prejudice against Blacks. The study, published in this week’s edition of the journal, is the first of its kind to attempt to scientifically connect religion with racism.
Researchers used priming as their method in the study. College students served as the study’s participants, who were subliminally primed with neutral and Christian concepts, like for example, “cross,” “heaven,” and “faith.” Each of the religious words was displayed among neutral words for a split second, and the participants were then asked to categorize the words.
When using priming in psychological experiments, participants are usually influenced by a word or concept subliminally in order to test how specific subconsciously-introduced concepts will affect the participants’ later behavior or response. An example of priming includes showing the word “table” and the increased likelihood of a participant later selecting related words like “chair.”
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When the participants of this study were primed with words that are usually associated with Christian concepts, the students were more likely to respond unfavorably to questions—both overt and subtle–about African-Americans in a later survey. For example, one survey presented the participants with an argument that either supported or decried a specific social policy that would help or hinder the African-American community. The questions following the argument asked whether or not the argument supported the conclusion, and to what degree. In this way, researchers were able to determine a person’s underlying prejudice against Blacks.
The study was conducted using two experimental groups, and each participant’s religiousness or spirituality was assessed before the experiment began, in order to statistically control variables for each group. Although the experiment, lead by a Dr. Wade Rowatt, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor, did determine some sort of connection between Christian religiosity and racism, the researchers concluded that they were not sure why that was the case. Dr. Rowatt speculated that perhaps since Christian concepts are often associated with Right-wing bigotry, participants were influenced by these cognitive representations.
Whether or not there is any scientific connection among religion, spirituality, and prejudice is still up for debate, but this study is an interesting addition to previous neurological and psychological experiments that ask what, exactly, religion activates in our minds. Other examples include research explained in a previous Generally Thinking article, “Are atheists happier than religious people?“, as well as the 2004 controversy sparked by the purported existence of a “God gene.”
About the Author:
This guest post is contributed by Kitty Holman, who writes on the topics of Nursing Schools. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: kitty.holman20@gmail.com.
Reference:
Johnson, M.K., Rowatt, W.C., LaBouff, J. (2010). Priming Christian Religious Concepts Increases Racial Prejudice. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(2), 119-126
