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