Heiphetz's Five Experiments: A Comparative Analysis

Around the world, people view religion as a cornerstone of their lives and indoctrinate their children into a belief system at an early age. This is done in an effort set a strong foundation for growth based upon the parent’s religious and personal beliefs to raise a child with morals, a strong sense of self, and of community. However, religion can inadvertently be a tool for intolerance against those of different beliefs.
Heiphetz and colleagues performed five experiments using children and adults to study both implicit and explicit attitudes among both groups. The first experiment was performed on adults who were asked to read two vignettes regarding either a Christian or Jewish person. The adults were then asked to read several sentences …show more content…
Each person was given the Assessment of Spirituality and Religious Sentiments (ASPIRES) which has 35questions to measure two dimensions. The first dimension measured is spiritual transcendence or “the motivational capacity to create a broad sense of personal meaning in one’s own life” (Brown, Chen, Gehlert, & Piedmont, 2013). Spiritual transcendence is further broken down into three subgroups: prayer fulfillment, universality, and connectedness. Prayer fulfillment is defined as “the ability to create personal space that enables one to feel a positive connection to some larger reality” (Brown, Chen, Gehlert, & Piedmont, 2013). Universality is “the belief in a larger meaning and purpose to life” (Brown, Chen, Gehlert, & Piedmont, 2013). Finally, connectedness is “feelings of belonging and responsibility to a larger human reality that cuts across generations and groups” (Brown, Chen, Gehlert, & Piedmont, 2013). A religious sentiment is “the extent to which an individual is involved in and committed to the precepts, teachings, and practices of a specific religious tradition” (Brown, Chen, Gehlert, & Piedmont, 2013). Religious sentiment is further broken down into two subgroups: religious involvement and religious crisis. Religious involvement is “reflects how actively involved a person is in performing various religious …show more content…
Kossowska and colleagues wanted to see if a person’s moral taboos or religious doctrine were challenged by an outgroup if that would cause person feel a sense of uncertainty avoidance (2015). Kossowska and colleagues wished to find out if uncertainty avoidance was felt, would that lead to a prejudicial attitude toward the outgroup (2015). A study was performed on 225 Polish citizens to test each individual’s uncertainty avoidance by use of the Need for Closure scale. A high score on this test indicated a need for closure and a higher tendency to avoid uncertainty. Next the Post-Critical Belief Scale was administered to test “(1) inclusion versus exclusion of transcendence, representing the belief in God component of religion (2) literal versus symbolic, representing the interpretive component of religion” (Kossowska & Sekerdej, 2015). Higher scores in both of these tests would indicate a high belief in God and of a “literal interpretation of religion” (Kossowska & Sekerdej, 2015). Finally, the Human Rights Questionnaire was modified to measure intolerance towards value-violating groups (Kossowska & Sekerdej, 2015). This test measured to what extent the participants would deny the “civil, political, social, cultural and economic rights of groups who violate social order and security” (Kossowska & Sekerdej, 2015). The results of this study showed those who experienced a high level of uncertainty