Religious fundamentalism and racial prejudice: a comparison of implicit and explicit approaches

Abstract

We examined religious fundamentalism (RF) and racial prejudice (RP) using the implicit Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) and explicit Feeling Thermometer (FT). Ninety undergraduates (38 Blacks and 52 Whites) from a small southern USA university participated. We experimentally manipulated aggression/love Bible texts to study any influence on RP, but found that it had no effect on reducing pretest–posttest AMP scores. Analysis of AMP posttest data found that Black participants favoured Black over White Primes, but White participants did not discriminate between Race Primes. High RF did not discriminate between Race Primes, although low RF did, in preferring Black Primes. Analysis of explicit FT Warmness towards Whites/Blacks found an in-group preference for both White and Black participants. In this analysis, RF was not a discriminator among White participants in overall Warmness towards Whites/Blacks, although it was among Black participants. Most consistent across implicit–explicit data analyses was that high RF was generally unrelated to RP.

Keywords:

• racial prejudice
• religious fundamentalism
• Affect Misattribution Procedure
• implicit attitudes
• Intratextual Fundamentalism Scale

Notes

1 Altemeyer and Hunsberger (1992) included three studies in their paper, although they found a significant positive relationship between RF and RP in only two investigations. Laythe, Finkel, Bringle, and Kirkpatrick (2002) reported findings from three studies but found a significant positive relationship in only one sample.

2 Hall et al. (2010) also analysed 8 studies that included RP, RF, and RWA, and found that the significant positive correlation between RF and RP became negative (ES _r  = −.11, p < .05) when the effect of RWA was partialed out.