Explaining Xenophobia and Xenosophia: Effects of Religiosity, Openness, Tolerance of Complexity, and Religious Schemata

Abstract

The Bielefeld Study on Xenosophia and Religion in Germany included a special focus on the differential assessment of religion, spirituality and religious styles, in order to analyze their effects on the attitudes toward the alien, such as the culture of welcome, xenophobia and xenophilia. The research design thus included, besides attention to the pathogenic effects of religion, a decisive focus on the salutogenic effects of religion. Structure equation modeling was used with a sample of N = 1471 to assess the role of the Centrality of Religiosity Scale, the self-rating as “religious” and “spiritual,” the Openness to Change factor, the Tolerance of Complexity Scale, and the assessment of religious schemata measured with the Religious Schema Scale (RSS), which includes a subscale for xenosophia/inter-religious dialog. When target variables for the culture of welcome, xenophobia and xenophilia, Islamophobia and Islamophilia are included in the equation, results indicate that the RSS subscales, and the RSS subscale xenosophia/inter-religious dialog in particular, have an effective mediating role and largely account for the difference between negative and positive attitudes.