US Religious Beliefs and Attitudes

Abstract

In 2017, White Christians (WCs) became a religious minority in the United States. We propose that, for WCs, learning about this demographic shift may result in a type of group-identity threat. When exposed to group identity threat, previous research has found people evince an attitudinal shift toward lower acceptance of groups other than one’s own. We conducted a between-subjects online experiment in which participants (one UW-Eau Claire student sample; one national online sample) were exposed to a religious identity threat or a control condition. Thereafter, we measured their attitudes toward religious pluralism, multiculturalism, and social/political issues. We predict that WCs who read about the US religious identity shift will show less support for religious pluralism and multiculturalism and more conservative social/political view. Findings from our study will contribute to identity threat theories and may also hold practical significance for understanding unanticipated consequences of racial and religious demographic changes in the US.