Psychologists: Exposure to Judeo-christian words causes sexism and racism

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Brief exposure to Judeo-Christian religious words can increase the endorsement of sexist attitudes among both men and women, according to a new study published in the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.

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“Previous research in this area had found that subliminal religious priming is associated with increased racial prejudice in US undergraduate samples. Given that many people no longer associate Christianity with overt, negative attitudes toward African-Americans, I wondered what impact it had on attitudes about women,” explained study author Megan Haggard, an assistant professor at Francis Marion University.

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“Many Judeo-Christian denominations and groups still practice and preach different and unequal roles for men and women, both within the religious organization and outside of it, so this research examines how brief activation of Judeo-Christian concepts, both above and below people’s awareness, influences their endorsement of sexist beliefs.”

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In four experiments, which included 384 Belgian participants and 286 U.S. participants in total, the researchers found that people primed with religious concepts were more likely to agree with statements such as “Women should be cherished and protected by men.” This was true among both theist and atheist participants.

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“Small, even unnoticeable exposure to religious words, especially those associated with supernatural beings like God and angel, may alter your feelings toward women briefly, regardless of your gender or belief in God,” Haggard told PsyPost.

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“This study only examined samples in two countries that have relatively low rates of both kinds of sexism, hostile and benevolent, as well as ones with majority Judeo-Christian influence on culture. Therefore, more work should be done to examine how religious priming impacts those living in countries with higher rates of sexism or with different majority belief systems, such as Islam or Hinduism,” Haggard explained.

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“Because previous research has found that priming religious agents increases pro-sociality toward others, it may seem counterintuitive that exposure to these primes is found to increase agreement with benevolently sexist ideals. However, as sexism researchers have argued, benevolent sexism can be viewed as rewarding those women who fit into the prescribed notions of gender role division within a patriarchal society,” Haggard noted.

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