Religiosity and Group-Binding Moral Concerns

• Published in: Archive for the psychology of religion Vol. 39; no. 3; pp. 263 - 282
• Main Authors: LaBouff, Jordan P, Humphreys, Matthew, Shen, Megan Johnson
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Netherlands Brill 01-12-2017; BRILL; SAGE Publications
• Subjects: political orientation; religiosity; international; moral foundations
• ISSN: 0084-6724; 1573-6121
• DOI: 10.1163/15736121-12341343

Research by Graham and Haidt (2010) suggests that beliefs, rituals, and other social aspects of religion establish moral communities. As such, they suggest religion is most strongly associated with the group-focused "binding" moral foundations of ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity. Two studies tested this hypothesis, investigating the role of political orientation in these relationships. These studies supported our hypothesis that general religiosity is positively associated with each of the group-focused moral foundations, even when controlling for the role of political orientation. Further, we find religious and political orientations interact such that low-religious political liberals are least likely to endorse group-focused moral intuitions. Results are discussed in a moral foundations framework and consider the role of religiosity's association with political orientation and group-focused moral foundations.