The Effects of Explicit Religious Priming on Attitudes
Paul Chakerian
Foothill College, California
Abstract
The existing body of research on priming effects aims to identify environmental cues and how they affect self-concepts as well as behaviors and decision making. The present research implements an extensive questionnaire in a between-subjects study to measure variance of attitudes on controversial topics. The sample of 92 college students was selected by convenience, half of the participants completing the survey with no primer and the other receiving the religious condition by explicit verbal priming. A 2 x 2 analysis of variance of the results indicates significant main effects in both priming condition and religious or non-religious affiliation.
Keywords: explicit priming, religious priming, self-concept, group salience, assimilation and contrast, value-congruence
The Effects of Explicit Religious Priming on Attitudes
Values and attitudes play a significant role in an individual’s interaction with the social world, yet it is often difficult to ascertain how these principles are formed in the mind. People often believe that their viewpoints are relatively firm and unchangeable (Verplanken & Holland, 2002; Ledgerwood & Chaiken, 2007), but emerging psychological research indicates that values and related behaviors are malleable; even slight influences from the environment can affect subconscious decision making (Rudman & Phelan, 2010). The process of attitude formation is an ongoing process, and although seemingly nebulous – current research is identifying how various factors come into play and shape the values that define us.
Implicit and Explicit Priming
Using a phenomenon known as priming, certain values in an individual can be activated when relevant environmental stimuli are presented. Whether these stimuli come from within a social group, imagery, or even by smell, we are not often aware of their implicit effect (Walker et al., 2011). In contrast, researchers may choose to utilize explicit priming by making stimuli salient to participates, thus overtly activating different values stored in the mind. The use of priming in recent research has proven to affect specific constructs such as gender stereotypes (Rudman & Phelan, 2010), altruism, aggression, prejudice (Carpenter & Marshall, 2009), and so on, thus influencing related behaviors that would not normally be present. For instance, Verplanken & Holland (2002) found that priming participants with environmentally relevant words would trigger favorably conscientious decisions in the related category. The priming was done implicitly through a world puzzle in which participants would descramble words and form a sentence with them. The priming test incorporated words such as green, ecological, earth, nature, forest¸and climate mixed in with neutral words to remain inconspicuous, and the control group received entirely neutral words. Their results concluded that priming was effective in producing value-congruent behavior only when that value was central to the individual.
Value Congruence
In concurrence to value-congruent behavior examined by Verplanken & Holland (2002), additional research demonstrates how an individual’s in-group and out-group associations cause a push and pull effect known as assimilation and contrast. In some instances, individuals may identify with another group and subconsciously adopt or incorporate new values, thus making any initial differences negligible. In the reverse scenario, exposure to salient social groups creates a contrast effect in which individuals exhibit distancing behavior. In a concurrent study, Rudman & Phelan (2010) examined how effective participants were at behaving in accordance with their values. In their study regarding gender stereotypes, participants were shown images of men and women with varying descriptions and then later asked to discuss their job preferences. In the two primed conditions, men and women’s careers were described to be in either traditional roles (e.g. male doctor, female nurse) or in reversed roles (e.g. female business executive, male teacher). In respect to value-congruence, Rudman & Phelan (2010) hypothesized that female participants in the typical prime condition would show more competitive desire to attain “breadwinner” or leadership-oriented roles depicted by men. Additionally, they postulated that female participants viewing target women in the atypical prime condition (e.g. female commercial airline pilot) would have job preferences identifying with non-traditional women. Interestingly, their results indicate that women exhibited value-incongruence when showing job preference: their interpretation suggests that female participants felt subconsciously threatened by women depicted in atypically masculine professions, thus showing preference for traditional roles and acting against their own values. This study is significant to the gamut of priming research as it suggests there may be unanticipated effects and interactions of priming. Additionally, the study reaffirms that converging measures of self-report and behavior can identify the value-incongruence discrepancy.
Priming of Religious Fundamentals
By acknowledging susceptibility to priming and how it can affect or even compromise one’s values, it brings forth significant questions about where individuals absorb fundamental beliefs. For example, how does priming affect such adamant values such as religion? Several concurrent studies using priming illustrate significant effects on the religious construct and how people incorporate it into their self-concept. In one study, Carpenter & Marshall (2009) examined 142 Christian participants’ willingness to act in accordance with their values in an altruism test. Primed participants were led into a room one at a time and asked to follow instructions in a packet which presented them with salient biblical verses; the experimenter left the room to observe the participants via hidden camera. The instructions asked participants to flip a coin, either assigning themselves or a non-existent person (deception) to receive a raffle ticket to receive a monetary reward. Additionally, participants were asked to describe the fairest method for assigning the raffle ticket. The data indicated that when religiously primed, participants were significantly more likely to act in accordance with their self-reported fairness values. The researchers found this to be in agreement with their hypothesis, yet the effect was often reversed for the non-primed condition: participants who were not intrinsically religious were more likely to cheat on the coin toss or assign the raffle ticket to themselves. This study elucidates some of the intricacies of value activation and how implicit priming of religion can diminish moral hypocrisy.
Potential Interactions
In a concurrent cross-cultural study between European Americans and Koreans, Sasaki & Kim (2010) examined how religion creates a sense of secondary control – acceptance or adjustment to difficult situations – in individuals depending on religious and cultural background. They examined the effect of religious priming on Christian participants who were asked to perform a simple cognitive task (Remote Associations Test) for a desired prize. Before performing the task, participants were asked to rate four potential prizes in desirability. Upon completion of the RAT, participants were intentionally awarded their least desired prize and monitored for both verbal and nonverbal signs of dissatisfaction. Findings showed that primed European Americans exhibited no negative behaviors, suggesting a highly significant interaction between culture and priming condition. In contrast, Koreans were more likely to show negative affect and behavior in the primed condition. Although the results of this study indicate a significant effect for the religiously primed condition, it also concedes that religious background alone cannot predict congruent behavior.
Research Overview
The present study seeks to examine not only differences in religious background and how it affects resulting attitude formation, but how priming can influence many of the dichotomous phenomena of assimilation/contrast and value-congruence/hypocrisy. Additionally, it attempts to explore how salient religious affiliation as well as group affiliation affects different social attributes. The study, conducted in a classroom setting, employs a multitude of questions in survey format to gauge opinions and attitudes on an array of aspects: politics, religion, environment, sex, and so on. For the primed condition, participants were called to the front, one group at a time, to select a survey from underneath a religious cover sheet pertaining to their own religious backgrounds. The control group received the survey without any group identification. Based on previous research on priming, assimilation theory, and value-congruence, we hypothesize (while we may still see fundamental differences between groups) priming will have a polarizing effect on self-reported attitudes that are in accordance with expected values of religious and non-religious participants.
Method
Participants
A student sample (N = 95) of Foothill college students participated in exchange for extra credit toward their psychology class. Thirteen Surveys were excluded for either being incomplete, using fake demographics or being in a marginal religious group, leaving a final sample size of 82 consisting of 53 females and 29 males (Mean age = 20.85). Among the participants, 33 reported being non-religious (atheist, agnostic, or none). Of the 49 who reported being Christian, 35 reported themselves as actively practicing their faith.
Materials
Participants each received a packet consisting of a consent form, a questionnaire, and a demographic survey printed on white paper. After signing the consent form, participants read the instructions and responded to a series of 79 questions (example in Appendix) by circling a Likert scale number (7-point scale ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”) which corresponded to each question. Questions varied in subjects including immigration (e.g. People should not be granted citizenship just because they were born in this country), religion, sex (e.g. Sex before marriage is a sin), and government/politics (e.g. I believe there should be less separation of church and state). Participants completed demographics[*] at the end which collected the following: age, race, gender, religion (and specific denomination), religious activity, and self-reported religiosity. Additionally, eight cover sheets were used to disguise the surveys for the primed condition: Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Agnosticism, Atheism, Spiritualism, and Hinduism.
Design
A between-subjects quasi-experimental design was used. The independent variable being manipulated was the religious priming condition: (1) Control group with no religious primer, or (2) Priming by religious and in-group salience. The dependent variable measured was the overall scores for each question on the survey.
Procedure
Two community college psychology professors provided three 15-20 minute timeslots to ask their students to participate in the present study. Participants were given a brief overview of the purpose of the study and asked to contribute in return for class extra credit. For the priming condition, the experimenter utilized active deception by telling the participants that each survey was specifically catered to each religion. Surveys were arranged in stacks on a table underneath the eight individual cover sheets and students were prompted to take the pertaining survey from the table in consecutive groups randomly selected by the experimenter. For the control condition, the survey was simply passed out with no priming. Participants were asked to read and sign the consent form, read the instructions, and complete the questionnaire and attached demographic survey. Due to time constraints, participants were not properly debriefed however contact information was made available to any interested parties.
Results
Due to limitations to the number of available participants, some results on marginal religions could not be included in analysis (e.g. Buddhism, N = 3; Sikh, N = 1). Additionally because of thin results, agnostic and atheist surveys were combined into a non-religious category. Using the modified results, we ran a 2 (Primed, non-primed) X 2 (Christian, non-religious) analysis of variance to ascertain the main effects and interactions.
In the survey question regarding level of religiousness (1 being not at all, 5 being extremely religious), there was an expected difference in aggregate scores between religious (N = 48, M = 2.44, SD = 0.897) and non-religious (N = 31, M = 1.16, SD = 0.374) participants, indicating an anticipated main effect for the religious factor [F(1,75) = 56.522, p<0.001] (Figure 1). This result establishes relative self-reported values of religiosity and helps establish a baseline comparison for further analyses. In accordance with this base result, the data suggest a slight polarization of attitudes for Q6 – Sex before marriage is a sin (Figure 2). While analysis indicated no significance for the priming condition [F(1,78) = 0.022, p>0.05] there is an emerging trend that primed religious participants were more likely to agree with the above statement and the reverse for primed non-religious participants. In addition to these findings, several other questions referring to religious values[†] indicated construct validity in main effects for only the religious factor [F(1,78) = 7.961, p = 0.006] and [F(1,78) = 7.158, p = 0.009] respectively.
Contrary to expected results, Q41 (When people die, their souls live on) had a significant main effect for the condition [F(1,78) = 5.542, p = 0.021] as well as religiosity [F(1,78) = 7.055, p = 0.01] (Figure 4). While the mean difference for Christians remained stable across non-primed (M = 5.26, SD = 1.137) and primed (M = 5.42, SD = 1.528) conditions, there was a significant difference in means between non-religious groups (M = 3.71, SD = 1.204; M = 5.16, SD = 1.979).
Additionally, results suggested main effects for Q64 (I believe there should be less separation of church and state). Although the priming effect was significant [F(1,78) = 7.961, p = 0.006], average scores for both non-religious and Christian participants unexpectedly decreased instead of polarized (Figure 6).
Lastly, a significant main effect and interaction was found for condition in Q79 [F(1,78) = 4.856, p = 0.031] (Figure 7). The trends indicate that, while there was little difference in mean scores between non-primed and primed Christians (M = 4.96, SD = 1.224; M = 4.77, SD = 1.394), there was a significant decrease in respective scores for the non-religious group (M = 5.43, SD = 1.089; M = 4.26, SD = 1.593).
Discussion
Although the data indicate significant findings for religious comparison, it is often the case that the priming condition produces either insignificant polarization effects or confounding results in changing attitudes, thus disproving the original hypothesis. However, it is worthy to acknowledge that the most significant individual differences are found in the questions pertaining to religion and not so much other issues like abortion, war, government, and so on. This may imply that people’s fundamental religious values are more important than other constructs. Additionally, the peculiar results from Q41 suggest that when religiously primed, non-religious are significantly more likely to acknowledge or believe in the existence of a soul. This suggests that the concept of a soul is not exclusive to Christianity, and perhaps many other specific religious aspects unknowingly overlap with non-religious values.
The results of our analysis indicate another peculiar effect of priming in Q64 on the issue of separation of church and state; it was expected that Christians would become more agreeable to church and state integration when primed yet the data suggest value-incongruence. One possible explanation is that primed Christians became aware of inherent flaws to their belief which may have a negative social connotation; they may have experienced social pressure to take a weaker stance on certain issues in order to avoid conflict. Because the experimental design made the out-groups salient, there is a chance that participants became more conscientious about how they were viewed externally (Ledgerwood & Chaiken, 2007) and exhibited compromised or value-incongruent attitudes (Carpenter & Marshall, 2009).
Lastly, Q79 presents a peculiar and puzzling set of data. While mean differences between Christians stayed relatively consistent regardless of condition, priming had a drastic and unexpected negative effect on non-religious attitudes toward health issues. This final result is not only statistically significant, but more importantly it addresses the lack of validity of our design, suggesting that redesign is necessary to accurately measure the priming effects. A number interpretations could be drawn about this particular graph, however it seems that there are unaccounted variables skewing the data and it would be best to note this result as an example of flaws in our method to be avoided in any potential redesign.
Although results varied greatly from each question and it was difficult to identify the dimensions actually measured, the data did correlate with findings from the existing research. For instance, trends of assimilation effects (Rudman & Phelan, 2010; Ledgerwood & Chaiken, 2007; Walker et al., 2011) emerged in the data, suggesting that individuals do have an inclination to unconsciously compromise their values within a salient in-group. The resulting polarization effect can be applied to many social situations, describing how perceived religious and non-religious constructs influence our values. Additionally, some of the results illustrated value-incongruence (Rudman & Phelan, 2010) or hypocritical effects (Carpenter & Marshall, 2009) in participants, however this relationship should be reinforced with convergent methods to better observe post-priming behaviors.
From the overall process of conducting a survey and analyzing specific results, we find ways to improve our design by exposing the less obvious flaws. Perhaps our attempted measures were spread too thin in trying to gauge too many dimensions that could be affected by religious priming, however this fortuitously masked the true focus of our experiment to participants. Additionally, due to inconsistent demographic entries, we were not able to correlate any of our data with other “strong” social constructs such as political affiliation or cultural heritage. Lastly, in order for the present study to attain concurrent validity, the questionnaire should have incorporated reliable and established measures of values to specifically gauge religiosity [e.g. the Intrinsic/Extrinsic Religious Orientation Scale (Allport and Ross 1967)]. As a proposed follow-up study, a new design should incorporate a true 2 X 2 factorial design with a more selective participant sample, as well as fewer levels (fewer religions) to focus on, thus creating less participant-fatigue and less extraneous data.
In lieu of the errors, inconsistencies, and seemingly infinite questions, the present research signifies that there is much to be examined in the way of priming effects and malleability of human social constructs. By acknowledging and studying the changeability of our values and how they are activated, the research community’s collective knowledge will continue to grow and illustrate the significance of such intricacies.
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