Cierre cognitivo, sexismo y religiosidad: Diferencias y similitudes entre grupos de adolescentes con distinta cultura

Abstract

In the context of motivated social cognition, the need for cognitive closure emerges like a decisive factor for a better understanding of individual differences on psychosocial variables linked to culture. Besides, they are likely to be taken into account in intervention programmes which objectives would aim to modify attitudes anchored in prejudice and discrimination. The goal of this research is to study this motivational construct and its relationship with sexism and religiosity with a sample of Christians and Muslims teenagers, all of them living in a multicultural context. According to the gathered data, there are not any significant differences between Muslims and Christians in need for cognitive closure and sexism. However, there are significant differences between girls and boys in hostile sexism. The need for cognitive closure was positively related, in a statistically significant way, with sexism (hostile and benevolent), and it is a significant predictor. Muslims got higher scores than Christians on indicators of religiosity in a statistically significant way. Results are discussed in relation to previous research. © 2013: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia.