A comparison of extreme religious and political ideologies:Similar worldviews but different grievances

In: van Prooijen , J-W & Kuijper , S M H C 2020 , ' A comparison of extreme religious and political ideologies : Similar worldviews but different grievances ' , Personality and Individual Differences , vol. 159 , 109888 , pp. 1-6 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.109888

Abstract

People can polarize into various ideologies, including tendencies towards political left- and right-wing ex-tremism, and religious fundamentalism. Here we compare polarization in these different ideologies in a USonline sample (N= 424). Building on significance quest theory, we specifically investigate how individualtendencies towards political extremism and religious fundamentalism are associated with grievance andworldview variables within the same study. As grievance variables we measured personal and fraternal depri-vation, and socio-economic fear. As worldview variables we measured belief significance, dogmatic intolerance,and parochial altruism. Results revealed that political extremism and religious fundamentalism were similarlyassociated with the worldview variables but not with the grievance variables. We conclude that independent ofcontent, ideological polarization is associated with a common worldview characterized by the feeling that onesupports a meaningful cause, intolerance of alternative ideologies, and a willingness to make personal sacrificesfor one's ideals.