Interfaith prejudice in the United States: The role of social identity complexity
Interfaith prejudice continues to be an understudied challenge in the United States. In three studies, the present research focused on prejudice between atheists and Christians and assessed the role that social identity complexity (SIC), the degree of overlap that an individual perceives between the...
| Authors: | ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2026
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| In: |
Archive for the psychology of religion
Year: 2026, Volume: 48, Issue: 1, Pages: 23-45 |
| Further subjects: | B
Atheism
B Self Concept B Prejudice |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Interfaith prejudice continues to be an understudied challenge in the United States. In three studies, the present research focused on prejudice between atheists and Christians and assessed the role that social identity complexity (SIC), the degree of overlap that an individual perceives between their various social identities, plays in these biases, as well as tested a novel intervention method using SIC to reduce bias. Study 1 assessed the relationship between SIC and prejudice for atheists and Christians and found that higher SIC in Christians was associated with lower levels of prejudice, but SIC was unrelated to prejudice for atheists. Study 2 tested the utility of an SIC intervention for reducing prejudice in Christians and showed a small increase in SIC but no reduction in prejudice towards atheists. A mini meta-analysis in Study 3 assessed the relationship between SIC and prejudice across all three studies and fully replicated Study 1. This line of work was an important first step in uncovering the relationship between SIC and interfaith intolerance for atheists and Christians in the United States. The findings suggest that SIC interventions may have potential for reducing prejudice in Christians, but future researchers will need to use methods that can be tested longitudinally for greater impact. |
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| ISSN: | 1573-6121 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Archive for the psychology of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/00846724241309922 |
