Publication Type: Poster
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The aims of this qualitative cross-sectional study were (a) to explore how the development of religious understanding and religious identity affect tolerance and (b) to identify developmental differences in the ways children demonstrate tolerance in interactions with their peers. The sample consisted of 15 primary school pupils ages 9 to10 and 18 secondary school pupils ages 13 to 14. A religion themed collaborative board game designed for the study was played by groups of 3-5 children while being observed and tape recorded. Transcripts of the interactions were analysed using qualitative content analysis and conversational analysis. The younger pupils had unquestioning beliefs in God and literal understandings of religious rules. Despite this, they demonstrated openness towards other perspectives and moral relativism. In some instances, strict thinking about social categories though appeared to be related to less tolerant beliefs. In contrast, the older pupils among this sample were more guarded when talking about their beliefs and less open to different perspectives. The adolescents’ symbolic understanding of religion, loss of faith and ability for critical thinking was linked with mistrust and negative views towards religion and religious people. Traits of moral absolutism among them were linked with non-acceptance of difference and even assimilationist views. In terms of conversational behaviours, the reluctance to disagree and confront others in the young children was contrasted with more frequent and direct disagreements among adolescents. Compromises were also more recurrent among adolescents. Self-presentation and trust in adolescence seem to represent potential challenges for the development of tolerance.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Recent studies on democratic learning and tolerance attitudes have suggested that democratic activism enhances political tolerance. However, researchers have found little or no link between more traditional forms of political behavior, such as voting and political interest, and tolerance attitudes. Peffley and Rohrschneider (2003) argue that democratic activism has a greater influence on tolerance because unconventional democratic activities such as participating in a boycott or a public demonstration require a higher level of personal involvement than more conventional forms of political participation. I will explore the link between democratic activism and tolerance in the United States over the period 1996-2006, identifying clusters of tolerance attitudes that appear to be influenced by democratic activism. I also will analyze which types of individuals are more likely to engage in democratic activism, the context in which activism occurs, and whether infrequent activism has as much influence on tolerance levels as more frequent involvement. Finally, I provide a discussion about some of the cognitive processes that may explain why democratic activism effects tolerance in ways that other political behavior does not.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Previous studies on political tolerance have succeeded in identifying strong individual-level predictors of tolerant citizens. However, this is an area of research that suffers from a serious lack of cross-national models of political tolerance from a macro-level perspective. This absence is particularly notable in that previous comparative studies have shown substantial variation in tolerance levels across countries, yet almost no effort has been made to understand the causes of this variation beyond the use of individual-level variables. In this paper, I fill this gap by demonstrating the impact of aggregate internal threat levels on political tolerance levels across 36 countries after accounting for other leading predictors of this attitude. Using cross-national survey data from the 1995-1997 World Values Survey and multi-level modeling techniques, I show that high levels of societal threat, such as insurgency, are negatively associated with political tolerance. Specifically, I find that individuals in states dealing with insurgency groups are much less likely to tolerate unpopular groups than those without such exposure. My paper demonstrates that the threat environment of a state reverberates to the domestic level by influencing individuals? decision to tolerate.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Previous studies of intrastate violence have focused primarily on identifying both the underlying and proximate causes of civil conflict leaving questions of subsequent social consequences largely unstudied. In particular, few studies have attempted to examine what influence, if any, these conflicts have on public opinion, especially attitudes relating to the tolerance of others. Although rising civil conflict is readily assumed to negatively impact domestic tolerance, such a proposition has never been systematically examined. This is unfortunate because theories of civil conflict converge well with unanswered questions in the political tolerance literature. Comparative studies reveal significant variation in political tolerance levels across countries with few explanations of the sources of these cross-national differences. In this paper, I contribute to both literatures by demonstrating a negative, independent impact of civil conflicts on political tolerance levels across 33 countries using data from the 1995-1997 World Values Survey. Applying several different statistical techniques (e.g., an instrumental variable approach and Hierarchical Linear Modeling), I find that internal threats to the state, specifically civil war, rebellion, and terrorism, dampen mass public’s willingness to extend basic civil liberties to nonconformist or unpopular groups. Thus, I not only identify a harmful long-term social consequence of civil conflict, but also a strong state-level source of domestic political intolerance.

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Supporting Document

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Using data from the 1988 General Social Survey, this paper explores the relationship between religious affiliation and tolerance toward homosexuals. More specifically, this study investigates the effect of (1) certain Conservative Protestant beliefs, (2) perceived threat of individuals engaging “immoral” behavior (3) belief that morality is a personal, rather than societal matter, and (4) target group affect in relation to granting of civil liberties to homosexuals (i.e., tolerance). Findings indicate much of the relationship between conservative religious affiliation and tolerance toward homosexuals is explained by the combination of church attendance, Biblical literalism and target group affect. In addition, those who believe an individual is capable of corrupting society are more likely to withhold civil liberties, despite controls for the morality of homosexuality (target group affect), Biblical literalism, church attendance and religious affiliation.