Gendered Measures & Outcomes: An Intersectional Investigation of Intergroup Religious Discrimination

Abstract

Religious discourse in social psychology often erases issues of intersectionality by centering a single-axis framework, discounting the ways in which social identities intertwine with each other and broader systems of power. In this dissertation, I emphasize the significance of studying religious identity through an intersectional lens by incorporating gender. I investigate how intersectional stereotypes and biases, at the juncture of religion and gender, can best be theorized, measured, and reduced by comparing the theoretical predictions from four major intersectional theories: Double Jeopardy, Ethnic-Prominence (Religious-Prominence, in this case), Intersectional Invisibility, and Theory of Gendered Prejudice. In Paper 1, across three studies (N = 3090), I examined intersectional stereotypes and emotions towards the men and women of three religious groups: Christians, Jews, and Muslims, to determine the prototypicality biases that Intersectional Invisibility is predicated on. I find evidence of androcentric biases, as (Christian, Jewish, and Muslim) men were perceived as more similar to their respective broader religious groups than (Christian, Jewish, and Muslim) women. The presence of androcentric biases in religion implies that previous findings showing that marginalized religious men face the brunt of intergroup discrimination can be explained by both Intersectional Invisibility and Theory of Gendered Prejudice. To further delineate between these two theories and compare the predictions from all four intersectional theories, I then designed experiments where each theory makes different predictions regarding the relative amount of oppression faced by marginalized groups. In Paper 2 (N = 3239), I examine patterns of discrimination towards Muslim men and women compared to Christian men and women, asking if gender influences the nature of biases against Muslims. I find that religious identity, and not gender, strongly predicted the nature of bias towards men and women within those groups, providing support for the Religious-Prominence hypothesis. In Paper 3 (N = 6579), I contrast predictions from four prominent intersectional theories by examining whether and how bias reduction interventions towards Muslims are gendered. Bias reduction interventions were gendered, but showed a nuanced pattern, providing some support for Intersectional Invisibility. In sum, this dissertation expands the study of religious identities by expanding existing intergroup research by broadening the questions we ask, the implicit assumptions we have, and the frameworks we use to interpret our findings. Understanding stereotypes and discrimination against religious groups disaggregating by gender is important both for advancing our theoretical understanding of intergroup conflict as well as creating effective interventions that reduce bias against both men and women in religious groups.