Relationship between dimensions of religiosity, authoritarianism, and moral authority

Abstract

The authors’ purpose is to investigate the relationship between religiosity, authoritarianism, and moral authority by considering religiosity as a multidimensional construct and morality from its sources of influence. Religiosity, authoritarianism, and moral authority scales were applied to a sample of 109 students from one high school and one university college in Semirom city in the province of Isfahan, Iran. Results showed that religious beliefs, feelings and consequences are related to external sources but only religious beliefs and feelings correlate with the principal source of moral authority. Findings also demonstrated a significant relationship between religious consequences and authoritarianism, and that their combination significantly predicts the external source of moral authority. Findings are discussed in relation to previous studies and we argue that previous conclusions about the authoritarian tendency of religious people and their reliance on external sources of moral reasoning are mostly about the religious consequences dimension.