Priming Religious Belief and Religious Social Behavior Affects Support for Democracy

The effects of religious belief and religious social behavior on support for democracy are investigated in a priming experiment conducted among Turkish Muslims and Israeli Jews. By varying the question order of World Values Survey (WVS) items, which measure religious belief and religious social behavior, it was demonstrated that priming religious social behavior facilitates, while priming religious belief impedes, support for democracy, compared with a control group of no prime. These results were independent of participants' intensity of religious belief or the frequency of their religious social behavior and held for the most part across both religious affiliations and political contexts.