The Impact of Intergroup Contact on Evangelical Attitudes toward Catholicism

Type of Submission

Poster

Keywords

Evangelical, Catholic, Intergroup, Bias, Favorability, Quantitative, Ecumenical, Correlation, Religion, Attitudes

Proposal

While positive evangelical Protestant attitudes toward Catholicism have increased over the last century, opinion is still mixed. This study seeks to discover whether intergroup contact between these two Christian bodies is correlated with higher evangelical favorability of Catholicism. Intergroup contact and exposure have been shown to positively correlate with decreased prejudice and increased favorability between racial and religious groups. To test whether this trend extends to evangelical attitudes toward Catholicism, we will survey a sample of evangelicals drawn from Cedarville University students. The findings will shed light on how evangelical opinion of Catholicism can be improved to foster further ecumenical dialogue and cooperation.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Publication Date

2023

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The Impact of Intergroup Contact on Evangelical Attitudes toward Catholicism

While positive evangelical Protestant attitudes toward Catholicism have increased over the last century, opinion is still mixed. This study seeks to discover whether intergroup contact between these two Christian bodies is correlated with higher evangelical favorability of Catholicism. Intergroup contact and exposure have been shown to positively correlate with decreased prejudice and increased favorability between racial and religious groups. To test whether this trend extends to evangelical attitudes toward Catholicism, we will survey a sample of evangelicals drawn from Cedarville University students. The findings will shed light on how evangelical opinion of Catholicism can be improved to foster further ecumenical dialogue and cooperation.