Intense issue commitment can be a proxy for sustaining minority-group identity

Evidence

In a more securely Catholic society, the fear of falling away from the faith might be less compelling because there are natural reinforcements, and there might be less urgent need to become deeply involved in the activities, including the political activities, of the church. In her society, however, Maria may need to construct her own reinforcements to keep her faith. Suppose that many American Catholics are like Maria—active because they want to be strongly tied to the church rather than because they share all of its politics. Commitment to the antiabortion movement might therefore be much stronger in a less Catholic society, such as the United States, than in a more solidly Catholic society. The difference is, however, not evidence of the greater intrinsic importance of the morality of abortion in the less Catholic society. Rather, abortion is taken on as an issue on the way to something else—namely, maintenance of the personal faith of future selves. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 239

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels Coleman’s social-capital account of religious communities sustaining behavior, and the moral-panic literature where an issue’s public salience reflects identity signaling rather than intrinsic importance. — connects to: Empowering contact boosts minority readiness to cooperate across 24 samples — Nurit Shnabel and Johannes Ullrich, Identity Needs in Intergroup Relations:…, 97
• SEED: Angle: why minority religious communities out-mobilize majorities on moral issues — political intensity as identity maintenance, applicable to contemporary evangelical politics.