Collaborative Research: Experimental Research on Religious Scripture and Political Behavior in the Muslim World

合作研究：穆斯林世界宗教经文与政治行为的实验研究

• 批准号: 1324157
• 负责人: Tarek Masoud
• 金额: $ 12.28万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-02-01 至 2018-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1324157&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Experimental; Religious; Scripture

This award satisfies Division B, Title V, Sec. 543 of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013 (P.L. 113-6, enacted on March 26, 2013). This project explores how Islam shapes the political attitudes and behavior of Muslims. Scholars and policymakers have long argued that Islam's influence on the way Muslims think and act is powerful. This is reflected not just in the social conservatism of Muslim-majority societies, but also in the fact that Islamist parties, such as Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Tunisia's Ennahdha Party, Indonesia's Party of Prosperous Justice, or Morocco's Party of Justice and Development, routinely earn large vote shares. However, this belief that religion exerts a stronger pull than other types of ideologies on Muslims has never been put to any kind of scientific test. The project includes a series of experiments in Morocco and Indonesia that will explore whether Muslims are more responsive to political appeals using religious language and symbols than they are to ones made in non-religious terms. The project includes two nationally-representative surveys that enable tests to determine whether experimental subjects who are exposed to religiously-based arguments for or against particular policies are more likely to be influenced than those who are exposed to non-religiously based arguments. This will permit the exploration of critical questions: whether the use of religious rhetoric endows Islamic clerical leaders and Islamist parties with a built-in advantage over their secular rivals, and whether Muslim receptivity to religious appeals varies by policy domain. The project will ask whether Islam has a more potent influence on Muslims' attitudes toward such matters as cooperation with the United States, gender equality, violence, or relations with non-Muslims than it does on their attitudes toward the economy or policies on health, welfare, and taxation. And finally, the project will address how social factors affect individual receptivity to religious rhetoric: Are vulnerable populations, such as women, the young, the unemployed, and inhabitants of urban slums more likely than others to be influenced by Islamist political speech? The project will not only add to the understanding of Islam and politics, but will also yield insights into the challenge of radical Islamism.Intellectual Merit: The importance of this research is twofold. First, it advances knowledge in political science, sociology, and anthropology about how religion drives the words, thoughts, and actions of Muslims citizens and their political leaders. Given the continued potency of political Islam in the Muslim world, the increasingly violent struggles between Islamists and their rivals in such countries as Egypt and Tunisia, and the religious justifications that undergird much of the region's anti-Americanism, this question is of urgent scholarly and policy interest. Second, the project has the potential to help transform the study of religion and politics and catalyze further research by demonstrating how scientific, experimental methods can be bring precision to the study of religion's role in shaping behavior. Broader Impacts: The project has considerable potential to benefit society in two ways. First, exploring the effects and limits of religious rhetoric can help to promote political pluralism in the new democracies of the Muslim world, by enabling secular and liberal political parties to learn how to compete effectively with those who deploy religious rhetoric. Second, the project has important implications for the national security of the United States. By studying the impact of religious rhetoric on Muslim hearts and minds, we can contribute to efforts to counter the extremist, illiberal, and anti-American discourses that are so often grounded in religion. In addition to generating academic products, the PIs plan to disseminate the findings of this research to policy and public audiences.

该奖项符合SEC第五章B组的要求。《2013年综合及进一步继续拨款法案》(2013年3月26日制定的第113-6号法律公告)第543条。这个项目探索伊斯兰教如何塑造穆斯林的政治态度和行为。学者和政策制定者长期以来一直认为，伊斯兰教对穆斯林思维和行为方式的影响是强大的。这不仅反映在穆斯林占多数的社会的社会保守主义上，还反映在这样一个事实：伊斯兰政党，如埃及的穆斯林兄弟会、突尼斯的复兴运动党、印度尼西亚的繁荣正义党或摩洛哥的正义与发展党，经常赢得大量选票。然而，这种认为宗教对穆斯林的吸引力比其他类型的意识形态更大的信念从未受到任何形式的科学考验。该项目包括在摩洛哥和印度尼西亚进行的一系列实验，以探索穆斯林是否对使用宗教语言和符号的政治呼吁比使用非宗教语言和符号的政治呼吁更具响应性。该项目包括两项具有全国代表性的调查，这两项调查使测试能够确定，与那些接受非宗教辩论的实验受试者相比，那些受到基于宗教的支持或反对特定政策的论点的实验受试者是否更有可能受到影响。这将允许人们探索关键问题：宗教修辞的使用是否赋予伊斯兰神职人员领导人和伊斯兰政党相对于世俗对手的内在优势，以及穆斯林对宗教呼吁的接受程度是否因政策领域而异。该项目将询问，伊斯兰教对穆斯林对与美国合作、性别平等、暴力或与非穆斯林关系等问题的态度的影响，是否比对他们对经济或卫生、福利和税收政策的态度的影响更大。最后，该项目将解决社会因素如何影响个人对宗教言论的接受度：弱势群体，如妇女、年轻人、失业者和城市贫民窟居民比其他人更有可能受到伊斯兰政治言论的影响？该项目不仅将增加对伊斯兰教和政治的理解，还将对激进伊斯兰主义的挑战产生洞察力。智力价值：这项研究的重要性是双重的。首先，它促进了政治学、社会学和人类学关于宗教如何驱动穆斯林公民及其政治领导人的言论、思想和行动的知识。鉴于政治伊斯兰教在穆斯林世界的持续影响力，伊斯兰主义者与埃及和突尼斯等国对手之间日益激烈的斗争，以及支撑该地区大部分反美情绪的宗教理由，这个问题具有紧迫的学术和政策利益。其次，该项目有可能帮助改变对宗教和政治的研究，并通过展示科学的实验方法如何为宗教在塑造行为中的作用的研究带来精确度，来催化进一步的研究。更广泛的影响：该项目有相当大的潜力在两个方面造福社会。首先，通过使世俗和自由的政党能够学会如何有效地与那些使用宗教言论的人竞争，探索宗教言论的影响和限制可以帮助在穆斯林世界的新民主国家促进政治多元化。其次，该项目对美国的国家安全具有重要影响。通过研究宗教修辞对穆斯林心灵的影响，我们可以为打击极端主义、狭隘和反美言论的努力做出贡献，这些言论往往植根于宗教。除了制作学术产品外，私人投资机构还计划将这项研究的结果传播给政策和公众受众。