Religious Orientation, Group Identity and Religiosity as Predictors of Religious Fundamentalism

Religious fundamentalism is key to understanding existing discrimination and violence worldwide. Knowing what is behind this psychosocial characteristic can help understand and prevent this type of harmful behavior. The aim of this study was to determine how religious orientation (RO), group identity (Gl), and religiosity predict religious fundamentalism. The sample consisted of 533 residents of México City and the state of Guanajuato (50.3% women, Mean age = 36), that belonged to one of four major Mexican religious ideologies: Catholic (n = 160), Jehovas Witnesses (n = 142), Evangelical Christian (n = 115) and non-religious (n = 116). Four psychological scales were used: 1) Fundamentalism Scale, which consists of two subscales: Orthodoxy and Conservatism, 2) the Religious Orientation Scale, which consists of three subscales: Intrinsic Religious Orientation (IRO), Extrinsic Personal (EPRO), and Extrinsic Social (ORES), 3) Group Identity Scale, which consists of twosubscales: Positive Group Identity (PGI) and Negative Group Identity (NGI), and 4) Religiosity Scale. The regression results revealed that IRO, Religiosity, NGI and ORES were positively related to Orthodoxy. ORI, IGN and Religiosity were positively related to Conservatism. EPRO was negatively related to Conservatism. The results indícate that Religious Orientation, Religiosity, and Group Identity are strong significant predictors of religious fundamentalism.