Project 3

An Examination of Religious Stereotypes in the U.S.

Introduction:

What is Religious Stereotyping?

Stereotyping on any bases can be described by Dr. Jhangiani and Dr. Tarry as "the positive or negative beliefs that we hold about the characteristics of social group" (Jhangiani and Tarry 11). In this study, we have focused on both the positive and negative thoughts on religions; however, there is a strong correlation with negative beliefs and other religions different then our own. In the process of stereotyping religions, we develop prejudice, which is understood as an "unjustified negative attitude toward a group," (Jhangiani and Tarry 11) and discrimination, which is understood as an "unjustified negative behavior toward a group" (Jhangiani and Tarry 11). This causes those negative beliefs, proven by Hunsberger's study that showed, "links between religion and prejudice have been interpreted to suggest that religion can exacerbate prejudice" (Hunsberger 807). This is a huge topic in today's culture, because of the effects stereotyping can have in the lives of millions. "Stereotypes influence our academic performance, the careers that we chose to follow, our experiences at work, and the amount that we are paid for the work that we do" (Jackson 1). Our study focuses on the opinions of 4 widely known religions; Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Mormonism and the meaning of those opinions.

Purpose of Research

The purpose of our research is to have a better understanding of certain religions that are a minority. We have chosen Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Mormonism. We believe that these four religions are misunderstood, misinterpreted, and stereotyped. The article written by Susan Fiske states, "Case studies of specific race/ethnicity and religions reveal much more cultural variation in their stereotype content..." (Fiske 1). This line directly correlates with what we have done with our research; the following study shows insight on each religion as a way to inform people who are misdirected by outside sources.

Islam

Islamic stereotyping has only increased in the past decade following the September 11 attacks on the twin towers. Which in Farid Esack’s journal, “Progressive Islam,” resulted in “tension between the heterogeneous center of Muslim population” in the middle east and any one from that area and the U.S. We stereotype Muslims based on extremist Islamic groups Al-Qaida and ISIS and the violent events that are started by them, such as beheading, kidnapping, and other terrorist actions. The lifestyle of Muslims as we have stereotyped is not at all what they practice and how they act. The Islamic community is poorly represented by the actions of much larger groups such as Al-Qaida and ISIS. The similar clothing, cuisine and geographical between extremists and traditional Islamic followers. But in reality the Muslim culture and people we are targeting because of these events caused by the terrorist groups have more in common with us then they do Al-Qaida or ISIS.

Shown in the picture is the effects of large radical Islamic groups that say they follow true Islamic scripture while they perform violent actions against others that do not have there same belief. It is common to think that the actions of radical Islamic groups (ISIS shown in this example) represents traditional Islamic practice's however they have have a completely different ideology.

This picture describes the stereotyped jew and what many people think a Jewish follower looks like. Jew usually are identified with dark hair with uncut hair, usually wearing white or black always.

Judaism

Many stereotype Jewish followers based upon their appearance and use that to discriminate against them. Some distinguished features of tradition Jewish members is dark hair and big noses; however, you don't need to look like that to be a jew. Throughout history Jewish people have been widely hated among other religious groups from their appearances.

This stereotyping of appearances leads many to think followers of Judaism as a whole entity as if they are completely similar however they are not, there are many different sects of Judaism just as there are of Christianity for example, “Orthodox Jews, Hasidic Jews, Yeshivish Jews, and Modern Orthodox Jews."(Sheskin 2)

Hinduism

Hindu is often seen as a very controversial and morally wrong religion based around the Caste system that is also involved in the governments of large Hindu countries. People in India are seen as locked forever in birth-determined positions, Caste in India is described as a "fatalistically-accepted system of discrimination"(Elder 1). “Any attempts to reorganize the caste system only results in violence” (Verghese). Hinduism is a religion that ironically preaches enlightenment yet discriminates and socially segregates its own people. People stereotype Hinduism as a peaceful and enlightening one, when in reality its caste system is one of the most controversial human rights issues to date.

The diagram above depicts the 5 social classifications of the caste system and the traditional jobs and purposes they have. The higher on the Caste system means the more wealthy and powerful you are while lower on the Caste system means you are less educated and less wealthy.

Trying to be expressed by the drawing is the negative stereotypes upon how Mormons live and practice their religious. The poster was drain in the 1880's and tries convince other that the great migration of Mormons to the west was just their death as they walk into Utah depicted as a skull. This picture represents prejudiced and discrimination against Mormons helps us see some early stereotypes of Mormons.

Mormons (Latter-day Saints)

The action of stereotyping Mormons begun in the late 1800's and confused many of their "principles of life and salvation" (Bunker 1) to the extent where they are misinterpreted for example in the book the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, LDS members were described as "treacherous, cruel, lustful males; degraded and gullible females; and neglected, unmanageable children" (Ludlow 1416). There is a major stereotype that revolves around polygamy and the association of LDS.

The " Mormon Question" by Sarah Gordon explains the discrimination and cultural prejudice of Mormons and expands to the topic of Polygamy where the practice is described as, "many Americans in the nineteenth century were intrigued, dismayed, and ultimately per-suaded that Mormon men were dangerous to the women they married" (Gordon 1).

Methods:

Participants:

We had 63 people participate in our survey. The ages of our participants rage from 17 to 56+. Their ethnicity ranges from Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, American Indian, Asian, and 2 or more races. The participants were females, males, and some who preferred not to specify. We had 37 females, 16 males, and 1 person who preferred not to answer. All of our participants were from the United states, except for 2. 6 participants have no high school diploma, 12 participants have only a high school diploma, 2 participants have a GED, 25 participants are in college, 6 participants have a Bachelors degree, 1 participant has a Masters degree, and 2 participants have a Doctorates degree. Most of our participants were raised in Georgia, but we also had some who were raised in California, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina,and Virginia. There was a wide range of household incomes from less than $25,000 to $200,000 and more. Most of the participants answered to having an income of $25,000 or less. The participants religions ranged from Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Atheism, and others we did not have listed. Most of our participants were college students, but it was also available for our friends and family to take.

Materials:

We found the participants through social media platforms; Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and sending out the link through email and text to family and friends. We made our survey on Qualtrics from College of Coastal Georgia. The surveys were taken on various types of technology; computers, mobile phones, and laptops.

Procedure:

Our survey begins with a disclaimer explaining our approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB), as well as our participants being older than the age of 18 to continue the survey. If under the age of 18 users are directed out of the survey. The survey consists of 21 multiple choice questions, free response, and drop down answers. They range from what religion they practice to how they stereotype different religions. As well as questions asking about the participants race, age, and where they were raised. We then used the information from our survey that was open for 48 hours to compile our data into this study.

Data:

The data from table from above expresses that 20 participants stated they do not stereotype religions, but most of their responses to the questions on how they view the religions through characteristics such as, kind, traditional, monotheistic, and violent were stereotypes from the knowledge they have about each one.

The results from the table above has supported 22 participants stated they do not stereotype religions, but most of their responses to the questions asking them to choose their associations of race to the religions most of them answered with certain races.

As displayed by the table underneath, 40 participants said they practice Christianity and of those 40, 60% said "no" or "maybe" to the question asking if they stereotype religions.

Discussion:

Our study shows that 42.59% of people do stereotype religions, with 40.74% of people saying that they do not stereotype religions and 16.67% of people answering maybe. This result shows that there is not a direct correlation to people stereotyping religions but still some correlation to religions getting stereotyped according to race, behavior, and culture. In a Fiske article titled "Prejudices in Cultural Contexts: Shared Stereotypes versus Variable Stereotypes," she states, "...to change stereotypes requires understanding their commonalities and differences" (1). Many people relate religions to certain cultures and stereotype those people based on appearance. This correlates with some results from our survey, with 45.33% of people associating Islam with people of the Middle East and 28.24% of people associating Hinduism with Indian people. Another stereotype we noticed in our survey was that many people associated Muslims to be the most violent, when ironically its main goal is peace, and one answer that is not so surprising is that Hinduism is known as a peaceful religion, even though its social structure is very controversial and outdated.

All in all, the questions we asked and the results we received only enforced our research showing that these religions are misinterpreted and stereotyped by society. Many of the people who have taken the survey answered that they have seen these religions on either television or social media, which possibly could have influenced their answers. In an article by Royce Kimmons titled "Religious Identity, Expression, and Civility in Social Media: Results of Data Mining Latter‐Day Saint Twitter Accounts," he states, "That scholars of religion have grappled with understanding how social media might influence aspects of religious identity" (Kimmons 637). Seeing that Islam is always on the news with events transpiring in the Middle East, many of our participants view Islam as a violent religion. To further prove this, an article by Michael W. Morris titled "Cultural Identity Treat: The Role of Cultural Identifications in Moderating Closure Responses to Foreign Cultural Inflow" states that, "Cognitive closure gives rise to cultural self-stereotyping as well as prejudicial behaviors toward out-groups" (Morris 762). Meaning that many people are quick to judge people of other ethnic groups. We must find a way to rid these stereotypes and false perceptions so people can have a real understanding of these religions.

Conclusion:

Limitations:

A major limitation we faced was expanding and finding more diverse people to do our survey. The majority of people who did the survey were college students (57.14%) and raised in Georgia (66.67%). With the majority of the people who took our survey also being Christian (76.6%) and Caucasian (63.83%), these results could possibly be skewed. However, take away both Christian and Caucasian answers and find that the results stay pretty much the same, showing that religious stereotypes basically has no race nor religion.

Future Research:

For future research of this topic, we believe that better results would be formed if the spread was larger and over a larger area. The participants we had were mostly from the state of Georgia and not to mention we only had 63 participants. If we were to have over 100 participants from more diverse backgrounds and from different parts of the country, perhaps our results would be different and we would have a better understanding of people's views on religions. Although, If the answers stayed the same, at least we would have different people's points of view on our topic.

References:

Kimmons, Royce, et al. “Religious Identity, Expression, and Civility in Social Media: Results of Data Mining Latter‐Day Saint Twitter Accounts.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 56, no. 3, Sept. 2017, pp. 637–657.

Morris, Michael W., et al. “Cultural Identity Treat: The Role of Cultural Identifications in Moderating Closure Responses to Foreign Cultural Inflow.” Journal of Social Issues, vol. 67, no. 4, Dec. 2011, pp. 760–773.

Ward, Sarah J., and Laura A. King. “Moral Stereotypes, Moral Self-Image, and Religiosity.” Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, Mar. 2019.

Hunsberger, Bruce, and Lynne M. Jackson. “Religion, Meaning, and Prejudice.” Journal of Social Issues, vol. 61, no. 4, Dec. 2005, pp. 807–826.

Fiske, Susan T. “Prejudices in Cultural Contexts: Shared Stereotypes (Gender, Age) versus Variable Stereotypes (Race, Ethnicity, Religion).” Perspectives on Psychological Science, vol. 12, no. 5, Sept. 2017, pp. 791–799.

Jhangiani, Rajiv, et al. Principles of Social Psychology. 1st ed., BCcampus OpenEd, 2014.

Bunker, Gary L., and Davis Bitton. The Mormon Graphic Image, 1834 -1914. Salt Lake City, 1983.

Ludlow, Daniel H., et al. Encyclopedia of Mormonism. Macmillan, 1992.

Theodore P. Wright Jr & Omar Khalidi (1991) Majority Hindu images, stereotypes and demands of the minority in India: the backlash, Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs. Journal

Esack, Farid. “Progressive Islam - a Rose by Any Name? American Soft Power in the War for the Hearts and Minds of Muslims.” ReOrient, vol. 4, no. 1, Sept. 2018, pp. 78–106.

Jackson, L. M. (2011). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association

Sheskin, Ira M., and Harriet Hartman. “Denominational Variations across American Jewish Communities.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 54, no. 2, May 2015, pp. 205–221. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/jssr.12189. Accessed 27 January 2019.

ELDER, JOE. Enduring Seterotypes about Asia; India's Caste System. Vol. 1, University of Wisconsin, 1996

Verghese, Ajay. The Colonial Origins of Ethnic Violence in India. Stanford University Press, 2016. EBSCOhost

Gordon, Sarah Barringer. “The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth‐Century America.” Journal of Supreme Court History, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd (10.1111), 2 Apr. 2003

Images:

“Ohio University.” Why Study World Religions?, www.ohio.edu/cas/classics/about/difficult-dialogues.cfm.

W., Jarman. Hell Upon Earth. Utah, 1882.

Jones, Timothy. “India's Caste System: Weakened, but Still Influential | DW | 17.07.2017.” DW.COM, 2017, www.dw.com/cda/en/indias-caste-system-weakened-but-still-influential/a-39718124.

Kash, J.W. “admin123.” J W Kash, 29 Mar. 2017, www.jwkash.com/hasidic-jews-a-tale-and-some-gedanken

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