The relationship between system justification and belief in God: The moderating effect of cognitive style and religious system justification

Abstract

This study examined the relationship among system justification, religious system justification, cognitive style, and belief in ‘God’. With a logical basis that belief in God is mainly implicit, we assumed that this belief is influenced by system justification and religious system justification in which it is accepted and preserved. This influence is bolstered by individual cognitive style. This study was a correlational study, with questionnaires, of 277 college students of the Universitas Indonesia (UI). Belief in ‘God’ was measured with the Belief in God Scale, while cognitive style was measured with the Cognitive Reflective Test. System justification was measured with two measurements, the General System Justification Scale and the Religious System Justification Scale, as an adapted version of the General System Justification Scale which was imbued with the context of religiosity. Using the moderated moderation regression model (model number 3) from Hayes (2013), we found that there were relationships between system justification and belief in God that are moderated by religious system justification, and that moderation effect was diluted by cognitive style.