Religious Fundamentalism, Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Prejudice

Prior research has not yielded a clear relationship between religious orientation and prejudice in spite of theoretical predictions. It was hypothesized that authoritarianism and religious fundamentalism would be positively associated with ethnic and racial prejudice, hostility towards homosexuals, and punitiveness in prison sentencing. Questionnaires measuring these variables and 12 demographic variables were mailed to 285 Manitoba voters, of whom 75 responded. Correlational and standard regression analysis confirmed that for this sample scores on authoritarianism and religious fundamentalism were positively correlated, with scores on authoritarianism significantly related to those on ethnic and racial prejudice, and punitiveness. Stepwise analysis suggested that the most important factor was authoritarianism although certain demographic variables were predictive as well.