Buddhists Care: Examining the Impact of Religious Elements on Reducing Discriminatory Attitudes toward People Living with HIV/AIDS

Faith-based programs have been long regarded as influential social approaches to form positive attitudes to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) within the last few decades. However, recent scholars argue that religions serve a double role in supporting HIV-infected people. Moreover, relevant evidence is mainly collected from studies among participants of the Western religious traditions, such as Christianity. This study applies the theory of the attitude formation model to examine Buddhist factors impacting discriminatory attitudes towards HIV/AIDS and the causal path to positive behavior intention. To investigate its underlying mechanism, Buddhist elements, as an important antecedent, were introduced in the advertisement against HIV/AIDS-related discrimination to influence people's attitudinal reaction. Results show that Buddhist advertising could significantly increase perceived religiosity and compassion. Then, both perceived religiosity and compassion jointly increase anti-prejudical attitudes towards HIV-infected people and have a positive impact on interaction intention at the end.