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Devotional Unity and Coalitional Division: How Religion plays both Jekyll
and Hyde to Religious Tolerance
Devotional unity
Coalitional division
Predicts intolerance
Predicts tolerance
Ian Hansen
With thanks to
• Ara Norenzayan
• Jeremy Ginges
• Sheldon Solomon
• John Rector
• Ilan Dar-Nimrod
• Hakwan Lau
Religion is evil. Not only is it false, but it will make you religiously
intolerant and violent
Why religion is bad, in a nutshell
• “Incompatible religious doctrines have balkanized our world into separate moral communities, and these divisions have become a continuous source of human conflict.”
–Sam Harris, atheist, author of The End of Faith
An example of violent religiously intolerant sentiment
“We are at war with Islam… It is not merely that we are at war with an otherwise peaceful religion that has been ‘hijacked’ by extremists. We are at war with precisely the vision of life that is prescribed to all Muslims in the Koran...”
–Pat Robertson, of Christian Coalition infamy
Oops, actually that wasn’t Pat Robertson. It was Sam Harris again
More wit and wisdom from Sam:
• “What will we do if an Islamist regime…acquires long-range nuclear weaponry? …In such a situation, the only thing likely to ensure our survival may be
a nuclear first strike of our own.”
BOOM!
Joking aside, Pat Robertson is still scary
• “Maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up”
--Pat Robertson, on the 700 club
Seeker’s dilemma: should you adopt a religious or non-religious worldview?
Nuked if you do
Nuked if you don’t
What predicts intolerance?
• Dogmatism, fundamentalism, exclusivity, authoritarianism--“coalitional rigidity”
Coalitional rigidity
Religious intolerance
+* *When controlling for religious devotion
What predicts coalitional rigidity?
• Prayer, belief in God, devotion to the divine, devotion to one’s religious belief, intrinsic religiosity—“religious devotion”
Coalitional rigidity
Religious intoleranceReligious devotion
++**When controlling for religious intolerance
Incomprehensible Triangle
Coalitional rigidity
Religious intoleranceReligious devotion
++
*When controlling for coalitional rigidity
-*
• Religious devotion has a NEGATIVE direct relationship to religious intolerance, although indirectly positively related
Re-draw the triangle?
Coalitional rigidity
Religious intoleranceReligious devotion
++
-
• Devotion and rigidity: two faces of the same thing?
• These inclinations are very highly correlated
The religious package is Janus-faced with regard to religious
intolerance
Religious devotion
Coalitionalrigidity
Religiousintolerance
ReligiousTolerance
Janus-faced on Scapegoating
0
1
2
CA
TH
OL
IC
PR
OT
ES
TA
NT
OR
TH
OD
OX
OT
HE
R C
HR
IST
IAN
JEW
ISH
HIN
DU
BU
DD
HIS
T
MU
SL
IM
NO
NR
EL
IGIO
US
OT
HE
R
FU
LL
SA
MP
LE
Theism
Exclusivity
Od
ds
of b
lam
ing
pe
ople
of o
the
r re
ligio
ns
for
the
tro
ub
le in
the
wo
rld
*
**
*** *
*
***
†
***
*†
† p < .1* p < .05** p < .01*** p <= .001
***
***
Janus-faced on War and Oppression
-0.6
0.6
Ref
ug
ees/
cap
Lac
k o
ffr
eed
om
arm
svo
l/cap
arm
svo
l/gd
p
mils
pen
d/c
ap
mils
pen
d/g
dp
Prayer
Exclusivity
Independent relationship of religion variables to war and oppression
Bars represent independent unstandardized betas in separate logistic regressions with national rank in each X variable predicting regular prayer or exclusivity while controlling for the other along with age, gender and national rank in GDP per capita.
Key:Refugees/cap: Total refugees who fled the country in 2003 (per capita)Lack of freedom: Freedom House’s Freedom score in 2005 (reversed)Armsvol/cap: dollar volume of arms imports and exports 2003 (per capita)Armsvol/gdp: dollar volume of arms imports and exports 2003 (as % of GDP)Milspend/cap: military spending per capita 2003Milspend/gdp: military spending (as % of GDP) 2003
Janus-faced on Anti-Pluralism
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Buddhist Christian Muslim Other Fullsample
DevotionRigidity
*
***
***
*
***R
eg
ress
ion
co
effi
cie
nt (β
) p
red
ictin
g in
tole
ranc
e
* p < .05*** p <= .001
Janus-faced on intolerance generally
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
-0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
Christian Nonreligious Buddhist Other Full sample
DevotionRigidity
***
*** ***
***
***
***
***
Re
gre
ssio
n c
oe
ffici
en
t (β
) p
red
ictin
g in
tole
ranc
e
*** p <= .001
Janus-faced even among Mormons
-0.15
-0.1
-0.05
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
Mormon devotion andfundamentalism
ReligiousDevotionFundamentalism
**
†
† p < .1** p < .01
Pol
itica
l int
oler
ance
for
Mul
tirel
igio
us p
eopl
e, H
indu
s, M
uslim
s, C
atho
lics,
Jew
s an
d A
thei
sts
How is Janus-faced prediction possible?
• The principle of transitivity objection
• If A = B and B = C, then how can A = ~C?
Answer:
• The principle of transitivity applies only to “is exactly the same as”, not “independently predicts”
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
• Both processes complementary, but very different—and when examined independently of each other may predict very different things.
Rising to all-embracing altruistic loving unity
Pragmatically pushing back limits of altruistic love to a
manageable, quality-controlled ingroup
Religious devotion
Coalitional rigidity
Religion!
Devotion and rigidity as two complementary yet opposing processes
of adaptive ingroup favoritism
• Religious devotion: aids the imaginative expansion of the boundary of moral inclusion
• Coalitional rigidity: aids the pragmatic hardening of the boundary of moral exclusion
What about experimental evidence?
Terror Management evidence:What makes people hate others
also makes them like God
4
4.5
5
5.5
6
6.5
7
7.5
8
De
gre
e o
f S
upe
rna
tura
l Bel
ief
Belief in God/Higher Power
Control
MortailitySalient
Religious
But it also makes them like Buddha
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
0
Neutral
Death
Column3Column4Column5Column6Column7Column8Column9Column10Column11
Buddha hears prayers
Buddha/HP hears prayers
Buddha/HP answers prayers
Evidence that Buddha/HP answers prayers
Scale midpoint = 5
Belief in Buddha among Christians
and Shamanic Spirits
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Clairvoyance Spirits exist Spirits guide
Death
Control (P)
Control (TA)Scale midpoint = 5
And makes them more sanguine about Islam conquering the West
Support for a Godly-Islam-will-overthrow-the-
faithless-West essay
Priming God-esteem increases preference for pacifism over warrior
values
4.5
4.7
4.9
5.1
5.3
5.5
5.7
5.9
6.1
6.3
6.5
Condition
God esteem
Group esteemSelf esteem
Est
imat
ed m
arg
ina
l mea
ns o
np
refe
ren
ce fo
r an
ti-w
ar
essa
y
Priming God-esteem decreases authoritarianism and political
intolerance
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Authoritarianism Intolerance
God esteemGroup esteemSelf esteemColumn 4Column 5Column 6Column 7
Est
imat
ed m
arg
ina
l mea
ns
for
au
tho
rita
riani
sm a
nd p
olit
ica
l in
tole
ranc
e
This mirrors Ginges et al (2007)
0
5
10
15
20
25
Prayer Prime No Prime Synagogue Prime
Perc
ent
calli
ng s
uic
ide a
ttack
"extr
em
ely
hero
ic"
Theoretical implications
• Religion is not black and white
+ +
+
+ +
+
rigidity
devotion intolerance
liberalism
toleranceatheism
VS.
WRONG!
Think of things more in terms of complementary colors
IntoleranceTolerance
Think of things more in terms of complementary colors
Coalitional rigidity
Liberal-mindedness
Think of things more in terms of complementary colors
Irreligious non-devotion
Religious Devotion
Think of things more in terms of complementary colors
IntoleranceTolerance
With Janus-faced adjustment…
Religious package : Religious-devotion/coalitional-rigidity
Religious toleranceand nonviolence
Non-religious package : Liberal-mindedness/irreligious non-devotion
Religious intoleranceand violence
Not all divides equally likely
Mother Teresa vs.Christopher Hitchens
Texas vs. SwedenMohandas Gandhi vs.
Winston Churchill
Common Common Rare
A very common—perhaps natural?—psychological divide
(Religious) Right
Left (Irreligious)
Psych tip for the Pentagon
How to get both Right and Left behind the “War of Civilizations”
Pump up the Right with rigidity Pump up the Left with atheism
devotedRIGIDliberal ATHEIST
BOOM!
BOOM!
Burning question:Aren’t some religions and
ideologies more tolerant than others?
Watch the Muslims Part 1 (Malaysia)
Rankings and means of religious devotion, coalitional rigidity and religious intolerance in
each religious group
Religious Devotion Coalitional Rigidity Religious Intolerance 1. Muslim (6.67) 1. Muslim (6.15) 1. Muslim (5.67) 2. Christian (6.36) 2. Christian (5.51) 2. Christian (4.95) 3. Buddhist (5.07) 3. Buddhist (4.68) 3. Buddhist (3.93)
Muslims most intolerant
Watch the Muslims Part 2 (10 nations)
Rankings and means of theism, exclusivity and scapegoating in each religious group Theism Exclusivity Scapegoating 1. Muslim (.99) 1. Muslim (.95) 1. Jewish (.34) 2. Hindu (.96) 2. Other Christian (.82) 2. Protestant (.254) 3. Other Christian (.95) 3. Catholic (.72) 3. Other (.247) 4, Catholic (.93) 4. Orthodox (.67) 4. Orthodox (.242) 5. Protestant (.89) 5. Protestant (.66) 5. Catholic (.236) 6. Orthodox (.80) 6. Jewish (.65) 6. Nonreligious (.223) 7. Buddhist (.73) 7. Hindu (.60) 7. Christian Other (.219) 8. Jewish (.71) 8. Other (.56) 8. Hindu (.17) 9. Other (.70) 9. Buddhist (.22) 9. Buddhist (.146) 10. Nonreligious (.12) 10. Nonreligious (.09) 10. Muslim (.142)
Muslims least intolerant
Review
Does religion contribute to war, oppression and intolerance in the world?
--Likely, but it can also contributes to peace, freedom and tolerance
Do more religious religions have more potential for intolerance and violence?
--Yes, but also more potential for tolerance and nonviolence
Can religions be rank ordered by intolerance and support for violence?
--Yes, but the rank ordering is very volatile and can be turned on its head from one measure of intolerance to the next, one country to the next, one period of history to the next.
Chicken & Egg issues
• Coalitional rigidity pragmatically shadows pro-social religious devotion?
Or
• Religious devotion gives people memorable content to be adaptively rigid about?
Pleistocene accident or proximal psychological process?
• Are devotion and rigidity separate processes that adaptively balance each other?
or
• Does proximal stimulation of devotion cause rigidity or vice versa?
Sociology vs. Psychology
• Even if religious devotion is psychologically related to tolerance for the individual, do sociological pressures ensure that rigidity will overshadow devotion?
Conclusion