Religion and Refugees: The Effects of Scriptural Primes on Attitudes Towards Christian and Muslim Refugees

Brianna Musgrove

Despite the prosocial effects of religion in some contexts (Shariff, Willard, Andersen, & Norenzayan, 2016), among Americans, religion has been linked to less accepting attitudes towards refugees (Carlson et al., 2019; Deslandes & Anderson, 2019). The present study examined if attitudes towards refugees could be improved by reminding religious participants of Biblical calls for compassion. Participants were 178 students (Mage = 19.03 year) enrolled in classes at a university in the southeastern United States. Through a task supposedly measuring thinking skills, participants were primed with one of five types of passages: neutral, Biblical exclusion, Biblical inclusion, Biblical neutral, or secular inclusion before reading about either Christian or Muslim refugees fleeing strife in Syria and then rating their attitudes towards the refugees. Attitudes towards Christian refugees were significantly more favorable than attitudes towards Muslim refugees, further validating the role of social identity in explaining American Christians’ aversion to Middle Eastern refugees who are perceived as religious out-group members. The present study failed to find evidence that reminding Christians of Biblical mandates to show compassion towards foreigners would alter their attitudes towards refugees; however, additional research is needed with larger and more diverse samples before definitive conclusions can be drawn.

• Brianna Musgrove is a senior psychology major from North Augusta, SC. She is a supplemental instructor for Psychology 101 and has been actively involved in undergraduate research for the last three semesters. She graduates in May 2020 and her future plan is to pursue graduate training in counseling.