Correlational data cannot establish whether religion causes prejudice.

Evidence

Second, the primary goal of this research was to establish whether there is a causal relation between religion and prejudice. This has not yet been established since the correlational data surveyed in the Deslandes and Anderson (2019), Hall et al. (2010), and Whitley (2009) reviews do not allow inferences of a causal relation between religion and prejudice. It is conceivable, for example, that prejudice moves people to seek and accept a value system (such as religion) that is consistent with their beliefs. The link between religion and prejudice may also be due to a third variable, such as the conservative values that Hall et al. — Annetta Snell and Miron Zuckerman and Bonnie M. Le, Does Religious Priming Induce Greater…, 21

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s question of whether professed conviction predicts measured bias or whether bias manufactures convenient belief; reverse-causation hypothesis. — connects to: Correlational meta-analyses cannot establish causal links between religion and prejudice. — Annetta Snell and Miron Zuckerman and Bonnie M. Le, Does Religious Priming Induce Greater…, 2; Religiosity-prejudice links are correlational, not established as causal — Annetta Snell and Miron Zuckerman and Bonnie M. Le, Does Religious Priming Induce Greater…, 25
• DEEPTHINKING: The reverse-causation insight — that prejudice may recruit a value system consistent with itself — is a subtle reframing of the religion-prejudice link worth sitting with.

Related

• Correlational meta-analyses cannot establish causal links between religion and prejudice. (similarity 0.91)
• Religiosity-prejudice links are correlational, not established as causal (similarity 0.91)
• Prejudice may drive people toward religion, not only vice versa (similarity 0.91)
• Prior religion-prejudice meta-analyses were purely correlational and each studied one target group. (similarity 0.88)
• Religiosity’s link to prejudice depends on whether the prejudice is proscribed. (similarity 0.85)
• Understanding religion-prejudice links requires specifying the type of religion involved (similarity 0.84)
• Type of religious prime may not moderate prejudice outcomes (similarity 0.81)
• Conservative values partly mediate the link between religiosity and racism (similarity 0.81)
• Religion fosters prejudice via intergroup bias, meaning-making threat, and authoritarianism. (similarity 0.81)
• Religious priming method does not meaningfully alter prejudice outcomes (similarity 0.81)
• Religion bundles opposing tendencies that both fuel and curb prejudice (similarity 0.81)
• Only religion-as-quest predicts reduced covert prejudice (similarity 0.81)
• Publication bias is unlikely to fully explain the religious priming effect. (similarity 0.80)
• Intrinsic religion reduces prejudice while extrinsic religion increases it across 32 studies. (similarity 0.80)
• Religion simultaneously enables both prosocial conduct and prejudice. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Religiosity-prejudice links are correlational, not established as causal #corroborates (1.00) — Annetta Snell and Miron Zuckerman and Bonnie M. Le, Does Religious Priming Induce Greater…, 25