Church and State
Moral and Religious Convictions and Intentions to Vote in the 2008 Presidential Election
Scott Morgan, Linda Skitka & Daniel Wisneski
Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
The current research investigated whether people's issue-specific moral and religious convictions had distinct or redundant effects on their intentions to vote in the 2008 presidential election. Participants reported their levels of moral and religious conviction about the issue that they perceived as most important to the 2008 presidential election and their intentions to vote. Results indicated that stronger issue-specific moral convictions and weaker issue-specific religious convictions were associated with increased intentions to vote. In short, people's moral and religious convictions had distinct and dissimilar effects on their intentions to vote in the 2008 presidential election.
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Oth Vilaythong T., Nicole Lindner & Brian Nosek
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, September 2010, Pages 494-506
Abstract:
The Golden Rule, a core precept of many religions, emphasizes the importance of treating others with compassion. We examined whether priming Golden Rule messages would influence Buddhists' and Christians' attitudes toward gay people and perceptions that homosexuality is a choice. In a priming task, participants filled in missing words for popular quotations including two Golden Rule messages that were attributed to either Buddha or Jesus. Christians (N = 585) in the Buddha-attributed Golden Rule condition showed stronger explicit anti-gay attitudes and were more likely to agree that homosexuality is a choice than Christians in the Jesus-attributed or control conditions, eta-squared = .012, p = .035, even after controlling for political orientation and religiosity. Buddhists (N = 394) showed no variation in attitudes across priming conditions, eta-squared = .001, p = .78. Our results suggest that although the Golden Rule has an important influence on believers, its message of compassion may produce more prejudice if it comes from an outgroup source compared to an ingroup source.
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Survivalism and Public Opinion on Criminality: A Cross-National Analysis of Prostitution
Steven Stack, Amy Adamczyk & Liqun Cao
Social Forces, June 2010, Pages 1703-1726
Abstract:
Explanations of variability in public opinion on crime have drawn disproportionately from the literature on specific symbolic orientations including religious fundamentalism and racial prejudice. In contrast, this article hypothesizes that public opinion is linked to the strength of a general cultural axis of nations: survivalism vs. self-expressionism. Data are from the fourth wave of the World Values Survey. Hierarchical modeling techniques are used to sort out the bi-level effects of survivalist culture on the approval of prostitution. Controlling for all other predictors, the personal survivalism index was the most powerful predictor of prostitution acceptability, followed by the country-level survivalism index. Unlike previous investigations, which relied on specific symbolic orientations, the present results suggest that attitudes about criminality are linked to a generalized cultural axis.
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Commerce and Imagination: The Sources of Concern about International Human Rights in the US Congress
Ellen Cutrone & Benjamin Fordham
International Studies Quarterly, September 2010, Pages 633-655
Abstract:
Do members of Congress put human rights concerns on the agenda in response to their constituents' demands for trade protection? Humanitarian concern may be an important motive, but the normative weight of these issues also makes them a potentially powerful tool for politicians with less elevated agendas. They may criticize the behavior of countries with whom their constituents must compete economically, while overlooking the actions of countries with which their constituents have more harmonious economic relations. This paper tests several hypotheses about the salience of human rights concerns in the politics of US foreign policy using data on congressional speeches during the late 1990s gathered from the Congressional Record. We find evidence that, while humanitarian interests remain an important motive for raising human rights issues, the economic interests of their constituents influence which members of Congress speak out on these questions, and the countries on which they focus their concern.
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Giving to Organizations that Help People in Need: Differences Across Denominational Identities
Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, September 2010, Pages 389-412
Abstract:
This article uses multiple-year data to examine charitable giving to organizations that help people in need of food, shelter, or other basic necessities. Families that give to basic necessity organizations in any single year are a mix of occasional givers and regular givers. Controlling for family characteristics that affect giving, giving to basic necessity organizations does not vary across Christian denominations and nonaffiliated families in any notable way. However, Jewish families are both more likely to give and, when they do give, give larger amounts. Given recent policy interest in how churches, synagogues, and mosques help with the voluntary provision of a safety net for people in need, the results draw attention to the importance of a research agenda focused on the differences between occasional givers and regular givers and on explaining why Jewish families give more to organizations that help people in need.
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Donelson Forsyth & Ernest O'Boyle
International Business Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research examines the relationship between the code of ethics adopted by businesses in a country and the ethics positions of the inhabitants of that country. Ethics Position Theory (EPT) maintains that individuals' personal moral philosophies influence their ethical judgments, actions, and emotions. The theory, when describing individual differences in moral philosophies, stresses two dimensions: relativism (skepticism with regards to inviolate moral principles) and idealism (concern for positive outcomes). Extending previous research that identified differences in relativism and idealism between residents of different countries and world regions, we examined the relationship between relativism, idealism, and the regulatory standards governing commercial activities of firms headquartered in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, the UK, and the US. The results indicated that the level of relativism of a nation's populace predicted degree of ethical codification of commerce in that nation. These findings suggest that the ethical conduct of business will be more closely regulated in countries where relativism is low (e.g., Australia, Canada) but less closely regulated in countries where the residents are more ethically relativistic (e.g., Hong Kong, Spain).
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David Campbell, John Green & Geoffrey Layman
American Journal of Political Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We argue that the factors shaping the impact of partisanship on vote choice-"partisan voting"-depend on the nature of party identification. Because party identification is partly based on images of the social group characteristics of the parties, the social profiles of political candidates should affect levels of partisan voting. A candidate's religious affiliation enables a test of this hypothesis. Using survey experiments which vary a hypothetical candidate's religious affiliation, we find strong evidence that candidates' religions can affect partisan voting. Identifying a candidate as an evangelical (a group viewed as Republican) increases Republican support for, and Democratic opposition to, the candidate, while identifying the candidate as a Catholic (a group lacking a clear partisan profile) has no bearing on partisan voting. Importantly, the conditional effect of candidate religion on partisan voting requires the group to have a salient partisan image and holds with controls for respondents' own religious affiliations and ideologies.
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Alice Ciciora
Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, June 2010, Pages 199-216
Abstract:
This article examines the views of Irish and Irish-Muslim elites about the compatibility of Islamic and Western values and how these elites feel Islam should (or should not) be integrated into the existing church-state systems. Ireland is a theoretically revealing case to examine because Ireland lacks an officially endowed religion, and yet the Catholic Church remains a dominant force in Irish society. The results of 16 interviews with Irish and Muslim elites demonstrate that both sets of elites have significant support for the perspective that Islamic and Western values are compatible, even while among the Muslim community there is strong support for the opinion that compatibility of values is dependent on the situation and among the Irish elite there is a small, but nonetheless important, presence of support for the belief that Islamic and Western values are incompatible and that Islam should not be mainstreamed. The findings also show that Ireland lacks a clear integration strategy but there exists a desire to protect the rights of individuals to practice their own faith.
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Stephen Merino
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, June 2010, Pages 231-246
Abstract:
Using data from the nationally representative Religion and Diversity Survey, Americans' responses to religious diversity are examined at the national and community levels. While an overwhelming majority of Americans agree that religious diversity has been good for the nation, support for the inclusion of non-Christians in community life is mixed. Theological exclusivism is consistently and strongly associated with negative attitudes toward religious diversity and less willingness to include Muslims and Hindus in community life. Belief that the United States is a Christian nation is associated with a positive view of religious diversity but decreased willingness to include Muslims in community life. Prior contact with Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus is predictive of more positive views of religious diversity; contact with Muslims is associated with greater tolerance for a mosque in one's community.
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Corruption and Culture: An Experimental Analysis
Abigail Barr & Danila Serr
Journal of Public Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Why do some people choose corruption over honesty and others not? Do the social norms and values prevailing in the societies in which they grew up affect their decisions? In 2005, we conducted a bribery experiment and found that, among undergraduates, we could predict who would act corruptly with reference to the level of corruption in their home country. Among graduate students we could not. In 2007, we replicated our result and also found that time spent in the UK was associated with a decline in the propensity to bribe, although this does not explain our inability to predict graduate behaviour. We conclude that, while corruption may, in part, be a cultural phenomenon, individuals should not be prejudged with reference to their country of origin.
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Erich Weede
Asian Journal of Political Science, August 2010, Pages 129-153
Abstract:
Two or three centuries ago most of mankind was still very poor. When the West outgrew mass poverty, India was a British colony and suffered from stagnation. When East Asian economies exploited the advantages of backwardness and benefited from export-led growth, India remained inward-looking and poor. The 'Hindu rate of growth' preserved mass poverty. Since the reforms of the early 1990s India has exploited the advantages of backwardness and some global markets. In this article, the roots of India's failure to grow rapidly before the end of the twentieth century are analyzed. Stagnation is blamed on restrictions of economic freedom, whereas growth is explained by the expansion of economic freedom. Before the mid-twentieth century, the caste system and the legacy of sultanism curtailed economic freedom and contributed to economic stagnation. Thereafter, democratic socialism distorted incentives and generated 'permit-license-quota raj' or a rent-seeking society. When some obstacles to growth were dismantled, vigorous growth followed. Although expanding economic freedom remains limited. India's growth potential is not yet fully exploited. Indian infrastructure and human capital formation remain inadequate, regulations intrusive, and the budget in deficit. The rule of law looks better on paper than from the ground. Compared to China, Indian public policy still has a lot of room for improvements. 'Maoists' or Naxalites threaten political stability and economic freedom. Geopolitics may explain India's late, slow and incomplete reforms. The rise of Asia, in particular of China and India, generates geopolitical challenges of its own. Conceivably, the global expansion of economic freedom permits not only the rise of Asia, but the peaceful management of the coming power transition between Asia and the West.
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The Correlates of Corruption in India: Analysis and Evidence from the States
Nicholas Charron
Asian Journal of Political Science, August 2010, Pages 177-194
Abstract:
Several leading indicators of corruption point to a serious problem in India on the whole. Yet what can explain the substantial variance of corruption levels perceived and experienced by citizens across various Indian states? Surprisingly little research in the field has addressed this important question. This article elucidates several relevant and testable hypotheses from the growing literature on the determinants of corruption, and applies them to the case of the Indian states. The estimates of the empirical models show that the level of development - measured both in economic and education terms - and the level of fiscal decentralization are significant and negatively related with levels of corruption. Factors such as income inequality, religious fractionalization, media exposure are statistically insignificant.
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In-group and out-group attitudes of Muslim children
Fadwa Elashi, Candice Mills & Meridith Grant
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, September-October 2010, Pages 379-385
Abstract:
Although negative stereotypes towards Muslims escalated after the events of September 11th, little is known about how Muslim children think about their own group members. Therefore, the current study examined Muslim children's attitudes towards Muslims and non-Muslims. Sixty-five 5- to 8-year-old Muslim children, enrolled in an Islamic school, engaged in two tasks. In the attribution task, children rated pictures of Muslims and non-Muslims on an adjective bipolar scale containing positive and negative adjectives. In the preference task, children were asked who they preferred as a neighbor, teacher, and friend. Children made more positive attributions for Muslims than non-Muslims, with young children providing more negative evaluations of non-Muslims than older children. Children also preferred Muslims as potential teachers, neighbors, and friends. Implications of Muslim children's attitudes towards in-group and out-group members are discussed.
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Shadee Elmasry
Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, June 2010, Pages 217-236
Abstract:
This paper examines the rise of the first African-American Sunni Muslim group, the Salafis, who identify with the Wahhabi interpretive tradition. The Salafi movement arrived in America in the early 1990s when the resurgence of Black Consciousness coincided with the recruitment mission undertaken by the University of Madina in Saudi Arabia. The main element of their program is the revival of the sunnah of the Prophet by promoting hadith study and the suppression of innovations or bida'. In America, the movement operated through two key communities in East Orange, New Jersey and in Northern Virginia. By the mid 1990s the Salafis could claim to be arguably the largest, most vibrant Islamic da'wah group in the U.S. However, the ensuing competition and rivalry among the new leadership and the negative energy borne out of condemning others turned inward and the movements' members began excommunicating each other. The backlash of 9/11 administered a severe blow on "a movement that at one time was the source of much hope". However, a decade has since passed and the Salafiyya has displayed a surprising degree of resiliency. It continues to grow, and lately has garnered significant attention through the conversion of popular rappers who converted to Islam and Salafism. The future will tell whether or not the leadership has learned from the errors of the past.