Religious fundamentalism and perceived threat: a report from an experimental study

Abstract

This study investigated the experimental effect of threat on religious fundamentalism (RF) and the tendency towards reprisal. We presented 102 Christians with one of three scenarios, involving the hire of a Christian biologist, evolution biologist, or a (neutral) communications expert as professor at their university, and also the subsequent sanctioning of his speeding violation. Moderated multiple regression analyses of Christian/evolutionist data found that low RF endorsed the evolutionist and high RF endorsed the Christian; further, participants levied a higher court fine on the speeding evolutionist, regardless of RF. Analyses of Christian/neutral data found that low RF discriminated in favour of the neutral candidate, whereas high RF did not discriminate between candidates; also, low RF sanctioned the neutral candidate with a speeding ticket, while high RF sanctioned the Christian. Overall findings indicated that fundamentalists were not necessarily aggressive or punitive and that they reacted no different from non-fundamentalists when values were threatened.

Keywords:

• fundamentalism
• intratextual fundamentalism
• reprisal
• aggression
• punishment

Notes

1. Keppel and Wickens (2004, p. 162) have offered the following guidelines for interpreting the effect size of η²: η²= .01, small effect; η² = .06, medium effect; and η² = .15, large effect.

2. Cohen (1969, p. 80) has suggested the following guidelines for interpreting the effect size of product−moment correlation coefficients: r = .10, small effect; r = .30, medium effect; and r = .50, large effect.