Religiosity and authoritarianism

We investigated (a) whether authoritarianism leads to religiosity or religiosity leads to authoritarianism, and (b) the relationship among Israelis between degree of religiosity and authoritarianism. The sample consisted of 176 Israeli high school and 125 college students. Four groups were isolated: religious sons of religious parents, religious sons of nonreligious parents, nonreligious sons of religious parents, nonreligious sons of nonreligious parents. The findings showed that the religious son of a religious family was more authoritarian than a nonreligious son of a religious family but not significantly more authoritarian than the religious son of a nonreligious family. These findings are interpreted as supporting the position that authoritarian individuals are attracted to an orthodox doctrine. The findings also disclosed for the Israel sample a high association between religiosity and authoritarianism.