My Religion and My People: Level of Ingroup Identification and Christian Religious Orientations

Presenter Hometown

Berea, KY

Major

Psychology

Department

Psychology

Degree

Undergraduate

Mentor

Jonathan S. Gore

Mentor Department

Psychology

Abstract

People adopt a variety of approaches to practice their religion, but there has been no examination as to how proximal versus distal ingroup identification may explain the different religious orientations. Two studies tested the hypotheses that 1) intrinsic religious orientation would be predicted by all three levels of ingroup identification (community, country and all humanity), 2) extrinsic religious orientation would be predicted by community-level identification only, 3) quest religious orientation would be predicted by humanity-level identification only, and 4) orthodox religious orientation would be predicted by community- and country-level identification only. Study 2 controlled for several individual difference variables. In both studies, participants (n = 285 for Study 1, n = 507 for Study 2) completed online surveys. The results across both studies showed that identifying with community predicted orthodox and intrinsic orientations, and identifying with all humanity predicted quest and intrinsic orientations. Implications for research on religion and outgroup prejudice are discussed.

Presentation format

Poster

Poster Number

062

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My Religion and My People: Level of Ingroup Identification and Christian Religious Orientations

People adopt a variety of approaches to practice their religion, but there has been no examination as to how proximal versus distal ingroup identification may explain the different religious orientations. Two studies tested the hypotheses that 1) intrinsic religious orientation would be predicted by all three levels of ingroup identification (community, country and all humanity), 2) extrinsic religious orientation would be predicted by community-level identification only, 3) quest religious orientation would be predicted by humanity-level identification only, and 4) orthodox religious orientation would be predicted by community- and country-level identification only. Study 2 controlled for several individual difference variables. In both studies, participants (n = 285 for Study 1, n = 507 for Study 2) completed online surveys. The results across both studies showed that identifying with community predicted orthodox and intrinsic orientations, and identifying with all humanity predicted quest and intrinsic orientations. Implications for research on religion and outgroup prejudice are discussed.