Western Attitudes Towards Non-Western Religions
They have called it 'the clash of civilisations', 'the inevitable third world war' amongst other things to describe the religious tension between west and east which seems to be on the rise after numerous 'terrorist attacks'. Based on the social identity theory and its description of intragroup relations and confrontation, this quantitative study tries to measure the attitudes of those belonging to a western religion towards non-western religions. Sixty participants, twenty from each groups of age 16-34, 35-49 and 49-60, took part. The mean attitude towards non-western religion was 35 out of 60. No difference was found between the age groups. This paper concludes by suggesting that the positive attitudes towards non-western religions might be due to the promotion of multiculturalism in Britain, which is in sharp contrast with Americas, and goes on to suggest that further studies are needed on the effect that the promotion of multiculturalism might have on intragroup relations and/or the likelihood of confrontation.
Introduction
What is an attitude? According to Thurstone (1928) an attitude is: 'the sum total of a man's inclinations and feelings, prejudice or bias, preconceived notions, ideas, fears, threats, and convictions about any specified topic.' From such definition an attitude can be summarised as the evaluation of a certain topic to give a final conclusion upon it. Although it is not clear to what extend our attitudes correspond to our behaviour, it would be naive to conclude that our current study is of no value. It can be said that simply knowing the attitudes of those belonging to a western religion (westerners) towards those of a non-western religion (non-westerners) might paint a picture of Britain's religious relations in the 21st Century.
The resurgence of religious fundamentalism in America and Middle East might have contributed to a vocalisation of 'fundamental atheism'. These three groups, while differing on many fronts, are similar in as far as each of them is made of distinctive individuals whom have created a unique social identity to which they belong. Laboratory findings suggest that simply allocating participants to different groups creates intragroup conflict (Tajfel, 1969, 1978). Despite the criticism that the validity of these findings outside of laboratory settings is not quite clear, such large groups as Christianity or Islam, to which belong millions if not billions of people are bound to compete for scarce resources, even if that is people to convert to their own religion. As (Tajfel & Turner, 1986) put it: 'The attempt to achieve a comparatively superior position for the in-group, on the basis of valued dimensions, is the key factor leading to discriminatory intergroup behaviour.'
Social identity theory suggests that there needs to be relative deprivation felt by a group as a whole in comparison with another group in order for social unrest to arise (Stein, 1996). This might only be a factor which combined with a 'believe that their situation vis-a-vis another group can be improved' (Taylor & Moghaddam, 1994) might give rise to intragroup conflict or social unrest. This theory can be applied towards the current religious tension as it can be said that the Middle East is relatively deprived in comparison with the west and certainly a change of the situation seems to be what 'they' are asking for.
The threat of Islamic fundamentalism on the other hand seems to have strengthened and revived evangelical Christianity especially in America. This fits neatly with social identity theory which paints a picture of 'us' and 'them' with an ethnocentric attitude (Brewer, 1979; Tajfel, Billig, Bundy, & Flament, 1971) and stereotyping of the outgroup members (Mackie & Smith, 1998). During crisis 'group identity tends to intensify' (Stein, 1996) which is further enhanced by the media in depicting certain events whereby from only a handful of people the whole group of 'Muslims' is judged as behaving in such a way. Another explanation of the ease with which the media finds in generalising to Muslims as a whole, focusing on their perceived inferiority such as their maltreatment of women, or their harsh judicial system which in turn strengthens the belonging to a certain group, might be the suggestion that 'Social identification is a process of depersonalization.'(Roccas & Brewer, 2002)
On the other hand, in Britain Muslims are a large minority. An attack on America from a foreign people might justify the strengthening of the ingroup, in this case American or Christian, hence the rise of fundamentalist Christianity. The attack in Britain was rather different as they are also part of us. The suicide bombers were born and bread in Britain hence belonging to the group British, but they also attacked such a group. This illustrates the fact that one can have more than one social identity which might overlap or interrelate with one another. Social identity complexity theory categorises this as a dominating identification (Roccas & Brewer, 2002) whereby religion (in our case) is the dominating identity and being British is simply a characteristic. Of course this might not be true of all Muslims, for some of them, the opposite might be true.
Bearing in mind the above observations we tried to measure the attitudes of people belonging to a western religion towards non-western religions to see if they conform to the theory of social identity.
Methods
Design
The questionnaire is trying to measure western attitudes towards non-western religions. The independent variable is westerners and age on a three levels scale ranging from 18-34, 35-49, 50-65. The dependent variable is their attitude towards non-western religions. Due to the nature of this study no control group has been used. This design was chosen due to the practicality and effectiveness in the measurement of attitudes especially in regards to this topic.
Materials
The questionnaire statements have tried to follow Edward’s criteria as closely as possible. Any ambiguities or floor and ceiling effects have been eliminated to be only left with simple statements carefully worded so as to no be leading in any way, contain any double negatives or confuse. For example, we have refrained from using statements such as: Non western religions do not make me feel uncomfortable, which might easily confuse the participants as to whether that statement means that it does or it doesn't? The statement instead simply says: Western religions make me uncomfortable.
Another example would be the statement of: Media should always present non western religions more favourable or media has not been presenting non western religion in a good light,. Instead the statement used was Media should present non western religions more favourable. The wording of the statements are so chosen for their relevance to the subject of study and for their ability to cover 'the entire range of the affective scale of interest.'(Edwards, A. L., 1957)
One of the aims of our study is, besides measuring the attitudes of westerners towards non western religions in general, to also compare the attitudes of different age groups towards this subject. As such, along with the completion of the questionnaires, the participants were asked to circle their age group which was limited to: 16-33, 34-49, 50-65.
The Likert scale of five points ranging from strongly agree, to strongly disagree has been used for the measurement of attitudes. The score, ranging from 1 to 5, were reversed for question 1, 2 and 6 whereby circling a 1, which stands for strongly disagree, is a score of five. In all other questions circling a 1 is a score of 1. A high score indicates a positive attitude towards non-western religions whereas a low score indicates a negative attitude.
A pilot study was conducting prior to the full study to test the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. The Cronbach Alpha score was 0.982, which is a very high reliability therefore no further modifications were made.
Participants
20 participants from each age group took part in this study. The participants where randomly approached through an opportunistic sampling. They mostly were students or within university settings.
Procedures
After inquiring whether a prospective participant wishes to take part in the study, they were asked whether they consider themselves to belong to a western religion, none at all, or non western religion. If the answer was a western religion or non at all, they were handed the questionnaire and asked to complete it, otherwise they were briefly told about the study and the reasons why they could not participate. We did not ask the name of the individuals who took part in our study so as to assure their anonymity and privacy. Once the questionnaire was completed they were debriefed on the nature of the study and thanked for taking part.
Results
The Cronbach Alpha reliability score of the questionnaire was 0.890, therefore highly reliable. Generally there was a high correlation between the statements with the highest being question (q) 1 and q2 with a correlation of .762; q3 and q5 also seem to be working quite well together.
The standard deviation amongst the statements was generally between 1.1 and 1.3. with the mean differing between 3 and 4.
The highest total item correlation is q1 and q10 with the lowest being q9. Q9 is the only question which shows an increase of alpha of .014 if the question is deleted which is quite interesting and will be looked into further. The other questions showed an insignificant difference of the Cronbach Alpha if deleted.
Descriptive Statistics
For a better understanding of the findings it is desirable to look at the descriptive statistics to find out if there might be any interesting results.
The general attitude towards non-western religions is between 34 and 35 out of 60. Therefore it can be said that there is a positive attitude of those belonging to a western religion towards those who belong to a non-western religion.
The differences between the groups is greatest between the age-group of 16-33 and 34-49 by .80 while those belonging to the age group of 50-65 are pretty much in between. In any case the difference is minimal and as such it can be said that they all have pretty much the same attitude towards non-western religions.
The results are shown below visually:
The standard deviation from the mean differs by almost a point of 2 between the age group of 16-33 and that of 34-49, but as the mean shows there is generally a consensus amongst the groups. This is also true of each individual statements as the mean difference hardly ever moves by 1 point. The implications of these findings will be discussed shortly.
Inferential Statistics
A one-way ANOVA test showed that there is no significant difference (F = .047, df = 2, p = 0.954) between the age groups.
Discussion
The consistent rating of the statements between participants, as shown by a very high Cronbach Alpha score of 0.89, is most probably due to a strict following of Edward’s criteria, especially the selection of 'statements that are believed to cover the entire range of the affective scale of interest.' The only question which might slightly increase reliability is question 9 which states that: 'Students of a non western religion should be allowed to wear the appropriate attire for their religion in schools.' One reason why question 9 does not seem to be working as well as the others might be the fact that this issue has attracted a lot of publicity by the media which might have acted as a reinforcer of 'us' against 'them'. It might be because of this appeal to the us' widely played by the media that we find a discrepancy in the rating of this statement. The other statements look at more superficial issues such as the feeling uncomfortable next to someone of a different religion which the British society might frown upon. Question 9 on the other hand sets itself apart as due to the publicity given to this issue our participants might have felt more comfortable in expressing their opinions.
As we mentioned in the results section there seems to be no significant difference between the three age-groups and their attitudes towards non-western religions. One reason for this similarity might be because most British individuals form their views of the other group through the media. There are no obvious reasons which might lead us to expect differing attitudes based on age. Instead it could be suggested that parental influences might have had a role in the formation of the attitudes of those belonging to the younger group which could explain the very slight difference found between the two other groups and the middle age group.
Generally speaking a lowest score of 34 and a highest score of 35 out of 60 seems to suggest a positive attitude towards non-western religions. Nothing less would be expected of a multicultural Britain, but the issue is quite sensitive hence questions as to the honesty of the participant's response might arise. Although it has to be said that great care has been taken to encourage every participant to express their true attitudes.
According to social identity theory intergroup conflict leads to a stronger bond within the inner group which holds an ethnocentric attitude while stereotyping the outside group. None of this has been witnessed in this research. In the contrary the participants, and maybe through them the British public in general, seems resilient and accepting of other cultures and religions. This could be because there is no 'conflict' per se, but more of a tension. The influence of other factors towards the escalation of intragroup conflict into forming a bipolar habitat whereby a clash is set to be made, in a society where multiculturalism and integration is promoted and valued, might be too weak, leaving bipolarities with no habitat for growth.
There also seems to be no clear boundaries between 'them' and 'us'. The 'them', which in this case is a very small group of fundamentalists, is hidden within a much larger group. Therefore it is not clear how much attitudes towards that small group influence the attitudes towards the group in general. As it was mentioned in the introduction, while in America there is a stronger distinction between the outgroup and the ingroup, in Britain the outgroup is also part of the ingroup. This illustrates the complexity of group identity which in some cases overlap. This overlap of identities might influence and soften the attitudes towards those perceived as belonging to the outside group.
It is clear that our findings do not conform to our hypothesis. The reasons for this might range from emphasis onto multiculturalism to overlaps of group identity and a confusion as to who belongs to the outside and who is inside. Following the results of this study, the review of the social identity theory and its application to the current situation of religious tension, it would be desirable if further research is carried out focused on the effect that promoting multiculturalism, integration, acceptance, tolerance and the like has on the intergroup relations and their likelihood of escalating into conflict or prejudice. Another area of interest might be how attitudes towards the outside group in general are influenced by overlaps of group identities.
