Religious affiliation and social commitment as determinants of moral attitudes in the prevention of AIDS or the fight against poverty.
The present study is an analysis of the effect of religious affiliation and social commitment on moral attitudes in the fight against acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) or the fight against poverty. French citizens (N = 284) who either belonged to the Roman Catholic church or were without religious affiliation, who were committed to the prevention of AIDS or to the fight against poverty, completed a 9-item scale drawn from R. C. Katz, J. Santman, and P. Lonero's (1994) Morally Debatable Behaviors Scale-Revised. Results indicated that the responses were significantly affected by the religious affiliation and beliefs of respondents: Roman Catholics expressed less moral tolerance than nonreligious respondents. An interaction between commitment and religious belief showed that Roman Catholics committed to the fight against AIDS were less tolerant of illegal conduct than those committed to the fight against poverty, whereas no difference appeared between nonreligious respondents. No gender effect appeared.
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Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale, Grenoble, France. Laurent.Begue@upmfgrenoble.fr
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001290:Attitude; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011203:Poverty; D012067:Religion; D012919:Social Behavior; D012941:Social Responsibility; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires