Children’s tolerance of religious norm violations: Lessons from Israel and India

• In Event: Reasoning about Religious Norms Across the Lifespan: Applications, Violations, and Alterations

Abstract

Different religions define different normative guidelines regarding appropriate behaviors. For instance, whereas Jews rest on the Sabbath, Muslims do so on Fridays, and whereas Hindus are forbidden to eat beef, Muslims are allowed. Here we examined whether Jewish children in Israel, and Hindu and Muslim children in India, view religious norms as religion-specific (only members of the religion should follow them) and alterable (e.g., by parental authorities or God).

In India, 80 children were interviewed: 19 Hindu 1st and 2nd graders (M=7.2 years), 20 Hindu 3rd and 4th graders (M=8.6 years), 20 Muslim 1st and 2nd graders (M=6.8 years), and 21 Muslim 3rd and 4th graders (M=8.1 years). In Israel, 24 Jewish religious 3rd and 4th graders (M=8.8 years) participated. Participants were interviewed individually, and made judgments about stories involving characters who had violated norms from the pertinent religions, or had violated moral and conventional norms. For each violation, participants were told about in- and out-group members violating the same norms, and were asked to judge the severity of each norm violation, and whether the violation would be acceptable if various authority figures (parents, God) gave permission.

In both countries, participants viewed religious norms as religion-specific. In India, children said violating Hindu norms was wrong for Hindus (97% of Hindus and 93% of Muslims said “not okay”) but not for Muslims (29% of Hindus, 24% of Muslims). Similarly, participants said that violating Muslim norms was wrong for Muslims (91% of Hindus, 91% of Muslims) but not for Hindus (37% of Hindus, 23% of Muslims). In Israel, violating Jewish norms was considered wrong for Jews (65%) but not for Muslims (1%), and complementarily, violating Muslim norms was considered wrong for Muslims (46%) but not for Jews (1%). Interestingly, however, a) the severity of violations were rated lower in Israel than in India, and b) whereas in India violations of either religion’s norms by coreligionists was considered severe to the same extent, in Israel, Jewish participants considered violations of Jewish norms as more severe than violations of Muslim norms. Differences also arose in terms of whether authorities can make norm violations permissible. In India, parental and divine permission substantially decreased the severity of violations (75% and 44%, respectively, said “not okay”). In turn, in Israel, parents’ permission reduced the severity of Muslim (21% saying “not okay”), but not of Jewish (71%) norm violations. God’s permission equally reduced the severity of Muslim (1%) and Jewish (1%) norm violations, but again, did so much more markedly than what was found in India.

These findings indicate that across cultures and religions, children hold firm beliefs about the scope of a religion’s norms as applying primarily to followers of that religion. Nevertheless, there are cross-cultural differences in how severely violations of religious norm are viewed, whether there are differences in the judgment of in- vs. out-group religious norms, and the power of authorities to change norms. The presentation will discuss potential socio-political contributors to cultural differences in judgments about the applicability and alterability of religious norms.

Authors

• Gil Diesendruck, Bar Ilan University
  Presenting Author

• Sapir Roash, Bar Ilan University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yael Trujillo, Bar Ilan University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mahesh Srinivasan, University of California - Berkeley
  Non-Presenting Author