Crossing religious boundaries: Individual and contextual determinants of who can violate religious norms

Abstract

In pluralistic societies, encounters with individuals, contexts, and norms of other religions can prompt conflict. We test a novel framework for explaining how individuals apply religious norms across individuals and contexts. In Studies 1 and 2, adolescents and adults in India and the United States judged events in which religious norms were violated by protagonists of different religions in different religious contexts. Participants often judged that norm violations were wrong even when the norm religion matched only the protagonist or context religion. Study 3 presented dilemmas that pitted religious norms against non-religious concerns. Participants favored following the religious norm yet accepted the protagonist's right to violate it. In each adult sample, more religious participants more often judged that protagonists were obligated to follow the protagonist's own religious norms. These findings reveal individual and contextual determinants of judgments about religious violations with implications for peaceful coexistence in pluralistic societies.

Keywords: Intergroup relations; Religion; Social cognition; Social development.