Title: A second look at religious orientation, social desirability, and prejudice
Abstract: In this study, which used a variety of measures of religious orientation, social desirability, and prejudice, religious orientation was correlated with self-reports of racial intolerance, and slightly negative, nonsignificant, and positive associations were observed for intrinsic, interactional, and extrinsic scales, respectively. Analysis of religious types further revealed that the intrinsic (I) and the indiscriminately antirelgious (LA) subjects were similar in their reduced prejudice relative to the extrinsic (E) and the indiscriminately proreligious (IP) subjects, who in turn did not differ. These comparisons remained essentially unchanged when sex and social desirability factors were controlled. Some data also suggested that IPs may be especially sensitive to social desirability factors, whereas Is may actually be more desirable socially. An awareness of the contrasts between Is and IPs may be crucial in research attempting to clarfiy the link between prejudice and religious commitments.