Religious orientations, prototypicality threat, and attitudes toward church–state separation

Abstract

AbstractWe investigated whether stronger religious fundamentalism predicted negative attitudes toward church–state separation as a consequence of perceiving low in‐group prototypicality (IGP). Across two studies (N = 635), Christians from the United States reported their religious orientations (intrinsic, extrinsic‐personal, extrinsic‐social, fundamentalism) before we measured (or manipulated) their perceptions of IGP. The dependent variables were attitudes toward church–state separation (S1, S2) and attitudes toward religious–national integration (S2). Results showed that stronger religious fundamentalism predicted negative attitudes toward church–state separation. Results also showed that fundamentalists’ negativity toward church–state separation was stronger when Christianity was not perceived as prototypical of America's identity. Religious fundamentalism did not predict attitudes toward church–state separation when perceiving high IGP. Religious fundamentalism predicted support of religious–national integration irrespective of IGP. The results suggest that fundamentalists will oppose the separation of church and state when they perceive their religion is not prototypical of their national identity.