Religious Fundamentalism, but Not Centrality of Religiosity, is Related to Online Conformity: A Study Based on Asch’s Paradigm

Abstract

Humans are inherently social beings and are often subject to social influence, a phenomenon known as conformity. But what traits characterize individuals who conform to group opinions? We aimed to examine the potential impact of religiosity and religious fundamentalism on conformity. With the growth of technology, many decisions are now made online, such as during video meetings. This shift prompted us to investigate online conformity in a pre-registered study. To measure conformity, we adapted Asch’s paradigm, using actors in an online video meeting to perform a simple perceptual task based on the classic line-length procedure. Our study focused on two constructs: (1) centrality of religiosity across its dimensions and (2) religious fundamentalism. We hypothesized that higher religiosity and higher levels of religious fundamentalism would be associated with greater online conformity. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that religious fundamentalism positively correlated with online conformity, whereas centrality of religiosity showed no relationship with conformity in the online setting.