The Relationship Between Authoritarianism and Mental Health Moderated by Religiosity

Abstract

Authoritarianism, which is the obedience to an authority figure and proclivity to use censorship and aggression to enforce the beliefs of the authority figure, is negatively correlated to various health outcomes. Religiosity, which is the strength of an individual’s religious belief, is also associated with many health outcomes. Religion and authoritarianism have been found to be positively correlated but no research has been done to see if they interact with each other. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether authoritarianism is associated with worse mental health and to see if higher religiosity in conjunction with higher authoritarianism has an amplified negative relationship to mental health. Data from the 2021 American General Social Survey (N ≥ 980) was used to explore the relationship between authoritarianism, religiosity, and mental health. A hierarchical linear regression was used to examine whether authoritarianism was moderated by religiosity in the relationship with health outcomes. The results suggest that allowing a communist to speak is positively correlated to mental health but allowing a Muslim and allowing an anti-religionist to speak are not correlated to mental health. Religiosity was not found to be correlated to any mental health outcomes either, which does not support the previous Belief-As-Benefit-Effect literature. When the relationship between mental health and allowing a communist to speak was moderated by religiosity, it was found that individuals who would not allow a communist to speak were more likely to report better mental health at higher levels of religiosity.