Ambivalent Sexism, Scriptural Literalism, and Religiosity

Abstract

This correlational study explores the hypothesis that religiosity and scriptural literalism (the degree to which one interprets scriptures literally) are associated with sexism. Participants were female and male ( N = 504) university students who anonymously completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory ( Glick & Fiske, 1996 , 1997 , 2001a , 2001b ), the Scriptural Literalism Scale ( Hogge & Friedman, 1967 ), and the Religious Orientation Scale-Revised ( Gorsuch & McPherson, 1989 ). Intrinsic religiosity, extrinsic religiosity, and scriptural literalism were positively associated with benevolent, but not hostile, sexism. Intrinsic religiosity and scriptural literalism were positively related to the protective paternalism subscale, whereas extrinsic religiosity was related to the heterosexual intimacy, complementary gender differentiation, and protective paternalism subscales.