Research: "Orthodox, humanitarian, and science-inspired belief in relation to prejudice against jews, muslims, and ethnic minorities: The content of one's belief does matter"

Abstract

In this study, we empirically explored the relation between (a) the content of people's orthodox, humanitarian, and science-inspired beliefs and (b) three measures of prejudice. Using survey data from a representative subsample of indigenous Dutch (n = 582), we found that orthodox, humanitarian, and science-inspired convictions that had different relations with prejudice could be discerned in The Netherlands. Most important, we found that humanitarian convictions could make people show compassion for their fellow human beings and could, thereby, work against the acceptance of prejudice. In contrast, orthodox convictions did not seem to work against the acceptance of prejudice against ethnic minorities, Muslims, and Jews. Science-inspired convictions were found to be unrelated to prejudice. © 2006, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.