A prestigious grant within the NSC PRELUDIUM 22 competition has been awarded to Jurand Sobiecki, a Doctoral School of Humanities and Social Sciences participant at the University of Gdańsk. For the next three years, he will carry out, under the scientific supervision of dr hab. Natascha Kosakowska-Berezecka, prof. UG, a project entitled 'The role of religious affiliation and gender in the relationship between religiosity and beliefs supporting social inequality.'

The project aims to investigate the relationship between religiosity and beliefs supporting social inequalities, taking into account the role of religious affiliation and gender.

‘The idea for the research was born out of the belief that religious doctrines often contain explicit guidelines about social structures and human nature, which can lead to the development of specific and often uncritical worldviews. These observations led me to investigate the relationship between religiosity and attitudes reinforcing social inequalities,’ says Jurand Sobiecki. ‘In the analyses I will conduct, I will focus on understanding how religious affiliation (e.g. Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism) and gender influence the relationship between religiosity and ambivalent sexism.’

The project will conduct systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses. This allows for a quantitative synthesis of existing research and estimation of the strength and direction of the relationship between religiosity, authoritarianism and social dominance orientation. Particular attention will be paid to how gender and religious affiliation may moderate these relationships. In addition, a multilevel analysis of data on beliefs about gender inequality, religiosity, and religious affiliation collected from more than 30,000 male and female students from 62 countries will be conducted. 

‘Investigating such a sensitive and complex topic as religion can make a valuable contribution to understanding its relationship with social attitudes and beliefs. In addition, we will examine whether these relationships are the same for all religious affiliations and whether religious affiliation plays a moderating role. We will also test whether these relationships are different among men and women,' adds Jurand Sobiecki.

The project received funding of PLN 92,700 in the NSC PRELUDIUM 22 competition and will run for three years.