Distinct religious primes and evaluations of religious and non-religious others: the moderating roles of religious quest and fundamentalism

Abstract

Research has shown that priming religiosity can have differential effects on attitudes towards religious and non-religious others. However, recent work has suggested that these differential effects may depend on aspects of religiosity that are made salient during the priming task. The present research applied construal level theory to evaluate the effects of abstract and concrete religious priming on evaluations towards religious and non-religious others. The moderating roles of religious quest and fundamentalism were evaluated in the entire sample (N = 197) and for a subsample of Christian participants (n = 125). Multiple moderated regression showed that individual differences in religious quest and fundamentalism significantly interacted with the priming manipulation to predict evaluations towards religious others in the Christian subsample. The findings of the present study suggest that the effects of abstract and concrete religious priming may depend on individual differences in religious quest and fundamentalism.