On Racism and Religion in America

USC News has published a story about the results of a USC study published in the February issue of Personality and Social Psychology Review. The study conducted a meta-analysis of 55 independent studies carried out in the United States with more than 20,000 mostly Christian participants. It found that members of religious congregations tend to harbor prejudiced views of other races. Here are some of the study's alarming conclusions as related by Professor Wendy Wood, one of the study's authors:

"People who were religious because of their respect for tradition and social convention were especially likely to be racist," Wood said, though adding that the strength of the correlation declined somewhat as racism became less socially acceptable.

"The effect stays significant even in recent years. For people who are religious for conservative reasons [respect for tradition, social conventionalism], they have become less racist in recent years as racism has become less socially acceptable. But even they are still significantly racist, just that the effect has reduced in magnitude," Wood explained.

Wood and her co-authors also found little difference in racist attitudes between religious fundamentalists and more moderate Christians. The second group tended to pay lip service to racial equality but harbored the same prejudices.

"What we found with that group of people was really no different from everyone else," Wood said.

Hat tip to Robert Cunningham for calling my attention to this article.