Cognitive dissonance between religious and secular social attitudes

• Published in: Psihologija Vol. 36; no. 2; pp. 217 - 231
• Main Author: Markovic, Jelena
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Drustvo Psihologa Srbije 2003
• ISSN: 0048-5705; 1451-9283
• DOI: 10.2298/PSI0302217M

The initial finding of the study, which served as the basis for the exploration of cognitive dissonance between religious and secular behavioral norms, was revealed in a tendency of the majority of religious students to accept behavioral norms, attitudes and believes (concerning interpersonal relationships and reproduction-related ethical issues) which are not supported by Orthodox Christian Church viewpoint and teachings. However, certain cognitive and value system consistency appeared to exist: the intensity of religiousness was related to lower degrees of secular norms approval. It has been found that religious and nonreligious subjects differ significantly in their preference of the strategy used to maintain balance between dissonant religious and secular attitudes- in 3 out of 4 issues considered in the study. Religious subjects most frequently chose relativism strategy, claiming that some specific exceptions from a general rule or standpoint do not necessarily depreciate it, while nonreligious subjects most frequently chose dualistic viewpoint that principally separated and restricted domains of reasoning on spiritual and worldly issues, making them psychologically irrelevant to one another. Kao osnova za istrazivanje kognitivne disonance religioznih i sekularnih normi, posluzio je generalni nalaz studije koji ukazuje na tendenciju vecine religioznih studenata da prihvataju norme i shvatanja (u sferi inter-personalnih odnosa i reproduktivnog ponasanja) koje svojim stavovima i ucenjima ne podrzava hriscanska pravoslavna crkva. Ipak, izvesna doslednost izmedju sistema vrednosti i sistema religioznog verovanja postoji: intenzitet religioznosti povezan je sa nizom tolerancijom prema sekularnim normama, odnosno manjim stepenom njihovog prihvatanja. Religiozni i nereligiozni ispitanici se znacajno razlikuju u 3, od 4 razmatrane situacije uravnotezavanja. Religiozni najcesce biraju strategiju relativizovanja striktnosti crkvene norme ponasanja - prema kojoj se nekim pojedinacnim izuzetkom formalno ne narusava opste pravilo ili opredeljenje, dok nereligiozni ispitanici za najadekvatnije biraju dualisticko glediste, kojim se nacelno razgranicavaju domeni zakljucivanja o duhovnim i svetovnim pitanjima, i psiholoski postavljaju u medjusobno irelevantan odnos.