>
> As far as I can tell this paper is claiming an association, not causation.
> And we were talking about the effect on conservatism, not essentialism,
> strictly speaking.
>
> But for the sake of argument, let's say this paper found that
> fundamentalist beliefs "cause" conservatism among Israelis. Why doesn't it
> work for American blacks? I mean, it really fails spectacularly for American
> blacks. For blacks, the more religious they are, the less likely they are to
> vote Republican.
>
> SA
>
I think Carrol's social network hypothesis has some real value here. If you're meeting once a week with people to affirm your common values, it's going to enforce ingroup loyalties. How could it be otherwise?
(It would be helpful, of course, if we could disentangle theological conservatism from frequency of church attendance. I imagine many of the studies do just that!)