Disentangling Religiosity: Specific Religious Perspectives Reduce Intergroup Bias

A large body of research has documented links between religiosity and prejudice toward groups perceived as threatening to traditional religious values. In the present research, we aimed to identify and experimentally manipulate facets of religiosity that reduce such intergroup bias. Across Studies 1 ( N  = 293) and 2 ( N  = 795), we used a theory- and data-driven approach and identified representations of God and liberal–conservative religious ideology that are associated with lower discrimination between groups that align with, are neutral to, or threaten religious values. In Studies 3 ( N  = 693) and 4 ( N  = 564), we developed novel perspective-taking prompts and found that encouraging American Christians to reflect on either a benevolent God or a liberal religious perspective significantly reduced bias in donation recommendations between value-neutral and value-threatening groups, relative to a control condition. These findings extend prior correlational work by identifying specific religious perspectives that can be experimentally manipulated to reduce discrimination and promote more equitable intergroup behavior toward groups that are perceived to threaten traditional religious values.