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" Three Experimental Studies on Reducing Religious Prejudice in the Islamic World "
Kalin, Michael
Rosenbluth, Frances
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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1051854
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| Doc. No
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TL50971
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| Main Entry
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Kalin, Michael
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Three Experimental Studies on Reducing Religious Prejudice in the Islamic World\ Kalin, MichaelRosenbluth, Frances
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| College
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Yale University
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| Date
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2019
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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2019
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| Note
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138 p.
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| Abstract
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What remedies are warranted when religious identity becomes the lens through which inter-group conflict is viewed? Adopting a broad framework grounded in social identity theory, this dissertation evaluates various strategies to reduce religious prejudice. Using a survey experiment in Pakistan, the first paper finds evidence that emphasizing a secular superordinate identity makes respondents more willing to extend distributive policies to an otherwise ostracized religious minority. Turning my focus to strategies that make use of religious elites and their influence, the second paper explores the causal effects of promoting a non-violent theology among clerics. Partnering with the Government of Chad to examine the effects of a religious literacy workshop aimed at influencing teachers in the country's Qur'anic school system, I find that randomly inducing greater awareness of the doctrinal basis for pluralism and non-violence in Islam does not, in the short term, produce change in clerical beliefs or attitudes but it does significantly influence how participants perceived social norms - defined as perceptions of typical or desirable behavior among their peers - when considering concrete manifestations of religious peacebuilding behavior as advocated by the curriculum. To make sense of this finding, I draw on an emerging literature from social psychology that suggests behavioral change may be more effectively pursued by prioritizing the modification of individual perceptions of normative behavior rather than altering private beliefs or attitudes. The third and final paper in this dissertation uses a survey experiment to explore how the sectarian affiliation and political involvement of religious elites impact their influence over popular perceptions of intra-Islamic sectarian relations. My findings offers qualified empirical support for the longstanding theory that centralized Shia clerical structures such as the marja' al-taqlid make Shia clerics, relative to Sunni clerics, better placed to promote peaceful co-existence. I suggest this may be due to a mechanism of in-group policing. Taken together, these studies imply three key lessons for policymakers: that multiple approaches may be effective in the fight against contemporary violent extremism but especially those that aim to change social norms; that governments can play an active role in defusing religious conflict; and that promoting the institutionalization of religious authorities can temper the expression of violent extremism.
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| Descriptor
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Islamic culture
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Political science
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Social psychology
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Rosenbluth, Frances
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Yale University
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