Abstract

ETCHEZAHAR, Edgardo  and  SIMKIN, Hugo. Religiosity, Spirituality and Skepticism: Mediation of Authoritarianism. Subj. procesos cogn. [online]. 2013, vol.17, n.2, pp.48-58. ISSN 1852-7310.

Initially religiosity and spirituality were interchangeable terms, as concerns academic literature. However, nowadays, the terms are considered as separate categories, either as opposite or complementary ones. In this sense, certain aspects of religiosity -more than those of spirituality- have been traditionally associated with such phenomena as authoritarianism, as regards dogmatic thinking. The main objective of this paper is to describe auto identifications asserted by individuals appraised as religious, spiritual and skeptical, in order to conclude if there are differences between these groups and authoritarianism. To this end, the sample chosen was intentional, not random, composed of 359 university students. The data was collected through a self-administered assessment instrument which inquired on the nature of auto identification: religious- spiritual-skeptical, as well as through the right-wing authoritarianism scale (RWA) and through socio-demographic definitions. It can be observed in the first place, that the majority of the sample auto identify as spiritual or religious (92.7%). It is observed, in the second place, that higher levels of authoritarianism were found among those who identify themselves as religious.

Keywords : Spirituality; Religion; Authoritarianism; RWA.