Fundamentalists’ main features are similar across religious cultures

What is it about?

Are fundamentalists primarily dogmatic or authoritarian? In other words, are they mostly characterized by strictness at the cognitive level or the moral and social level? In a study in 14 countries, fundamentalist young adults, consistently across different religious cultures (Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist/Taoist), were found to be both inflexible in their beliefs and conservative/rigorist in morality; and occasionally strong group identifiers. In most cultures, they also showed prejudice against atheists and believers from other religions. Inflexibility in beliefs, authoritarianism, and high religiosity all contributed to these prejudicial attitudes.

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Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Understanding whether fundamentalist expressions of religiosity denote absolutism primarily at the cognitive, moral, or social sphere is essential to help professionals and scholars in considering the best ways to deal with fundamentalism and its effects at the individual and the collective level--provided we agree on that flexibility, autonomy, and tolerance are key features of individuals’ optimal health and mature development. This work also shows that it is neither personality nor religiosity alone, but the combination of specific personal psychological dispositions with highly intense religiosity that best explains fundamentalism and related inter-religious prejudice.