Prejudice as a Function of Church Attendance

The purpose of this thesis was to replicate a curvilinear relationship, found by others, between reported frequency of church attendance and attitude toward Negroes; to seek a similar curvilinear relationship between reported frequency of church attendance and dogmatism; and to see if students falling at the opposite extremes of the scale of reported frequency of church attendance were similar in certain basic personality variables. A correlation was computed between the measure of dogmatism and attitude toward Negroes. Scores were obtained from approximately 180 subjects in four General Psychology classes. Rokeach’s Dogmatism Scale, the Desegregation Scale, and an abbreviated form of Edwards Personal Preference Schedule were used. Questions were also asked concerning church attendance and preference. All of the data were collected in a classroom situation. A curvilinear relationship was found between reported frequency of church attendance and attitude toward Negroes. No significant difference was found on data from the Dogmatism Scale or on any of the personality variables. The coefficient correlation between the Desegregation Scores and Dogmatism Scores was a minus .07. Suggestions for further research included: 1) more sensitive divisions between groups of church attenders, 2) the use of other means (prayer, Bible reading, etc.) to measure ‘religiosity,’ 3) an investigation to determine whether a curvilinear relationship exists between ‘religiosity’ and other personality variables and other attitude measurements, 4) applying some of the above to Catholic as well as to Protestant subjects.