Religious intrinsic orientation tracks whatever attitudes one’s religion endorses

Evidence

In this research, the patterns of association with nonproscribed prejudices for the extrinsic/means and the intrinsic/end dimensions exactly reverse the patterns for extrinsic versus intrinsic religion found in the earlier studies that relied on self-report questionnaire measures of proscribed prejudices (e.g., racial prejudice in the US in the last half of the twentieth century). For nonproscribed prejudices, the extrinsic, means dimension showed no clear relation to prejudice; the intrinsic, end dimension showed a positive relation. Apparently, those scoring high on measures of intrinsic religion are less likely to report prejudicial attitudes when their religion tells them that they should not, but they are more likely to report prejudicial attitudes when these attitudes are permitted or encouraged by their religion. Only the quest dimension showed evidence of a negative relation to prejudices that were not proscribed by one’s religious community (see Batson et al. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2548

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The reversal finding is genuinely paradigm-shifting: intrinsic religion wasn’t reducing prejudice, it was just obediently following the religious in-group’s prejudice norms. Redefines what ‘religious commitment’ actually measures.
• XREF: Connects to Allport’s original intrinsic/extrinsic distinction set up earlier in the book chapter, and to broader social identity theory on in-group norm following.