Does Religious Priming Induce Greater Prejudice? A Meta-Analytic Review

Abstract

The current meta-analysis addressed whether theistic religious beliefs are causally related to greater prejudice by analyzing 44 studies (N_total = 11,330) that used experimental designs—priming religion and then measuring negativity toward outgroups (e.g., LGBT and Muslim). The overall priming effect was significant but small (r = .06), indicating that priming religion increases prejudice. The implications of these results for the relation between religion and prejudice and for future work on religious priming are discussed.

Keywords

religious priming prejudice meta-analysis group processes

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