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People who leave their religion often abandon the conservative attitudes associated with their former faith, but they may retain the strict, authoritarian style of holding those beliefs. A recent study found that formerly religious individuals exhibit the highest levels of left-wing authoritarianism compared to people who are currently religious or those who have never been religious. The research, published in the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, highlights how rigid patterns of thinking can persist even after the content of a person’s worldview changes entirely.
Psychologists use the term authoritarianism to describe a specific approach to social organization and belief. This mindset generally involves a strong preference for conformity over personal independence, a tendency to submit to leaders within one’s own group, and a desire to punish anyone who violates social norms. While authoritarianism is most commonly associated with right-wing political ideologies and religious fundamentalism, it can also manifest on the political left. Left-wing authoritarianism involves similar desires for conformity and the punishment of norm violators, but the targeted norms and the accepted authority figures differ drastically from those on the political right.
In the United States, a growing segment of the population identifies as having no religion. Within this group, researchers make a distinction between nones and dones. The nones are people who have never identified with a religious tradition. The dones are individuals who grew up with or previously practiced a religion but have since left it behind.
Psychologists Daryl R. Van Tongeren of Hope College and Shauna M. Bowes of Vanderbilt University conducted the current study to investigate the religious residue hypothesis. This concept suggests that religious habits, emotions, and thought patterns often persist long after a person stops identifying with a faith.
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Religion acts as a schema, or a mental framework, that helps people process information and assign meaning to their social worlds. Because these mental pathways are deeply ingrained and practiced regularly through community socialization, individuals may continue relying on them even when they adopt new secular beliefs. The researchers wanted to see if the authoritarian style common in some religious environments would linger in the minds of the formerly religious.
To test this idea, Van Tongeren and Bowes recruited 804 participants through an online survey platform. The participants were asked to categorize their religious identity into one of three groups. The final sample included 286 currently religious individuals, 300 formerly religious individuals, and 218 people who had never been religious.
Each participant completed a series of standardized questionnaires designed to measure two distinct types of authoritarianism. First, they answered 14 questions to gauge right-wing authoritarianism. These questions asked respondents to rate their agreement with statements promoting obedience to traditional authorities and the enforcement of conservative social norms. The survey also measured the participants’ willingness to accept punitive measures designed to reinforce existing social hierarchies.
Second, the participants completed a 39-item survey to measure left-wing authoritarianism. This survey asked participants to rate their agreement with statements supporting anti-conventional norms, the rejection of traditional hierarchies, and the use of authority to silence ideological opponents. Questions on this measure gauged whether participants believed traditional power structures should be overthrown and whether wealthy members of society should be stripped of their status.
The researchers also asked participants about their age, gender, sexual orientation, political ideology, and the number of years they had spent as either religious or nonreligious. To ensure the results were not simply a byproduct of general political leanings, the researchers accounted for each participant’s self-reported political ideology during the statistical analysis. They also controlled for how certain participants were about the existence of a deity.
Historically, researchers have observed a strong link between religious fundamentalism and right-wing authoritarianism, as both rely on traditionalism and conservatism. As expected from prior research, currently religious individuals reported the highest levels of right-wing authoritarianism in this sample. The formerly religious participants and the never-religious participants showed much lower levels of right-wing authoritarianism, and these two nonreligious groups did not differ from one another on this measure. When people leave a religion, they appear to discard the right-wing authoritarian attitudes associated with it.
However, a different pattern emerged for left-wing authoritarianism. The formerly religious individuals reported the highest levels of left-wing authoritarianism across the entire sample. Their scores on this measure were higher than those of both the currently religious participants and the never-religious participants. The currently religious and never-religious groups did not differ from each other in their levels of left-wing authoritarianism.
The researchers interpret these results as a combination of religious residue and religious reactance. Reactance occurs when people adopt beliefs that strongly oppose their former worldview, which explains the shift away from right-wing conservatism. Residue occurs when the underlying psychological style remains intact.
The formerly religious participants changed the content of their beliefs, shifting from the political right to the political left. Yet, they maintained the rigid, authoritarian style of holding those beliefs. By demanding conformity and supporting the punishment of those who disagree with their new worldview, they exhibit a style of belief similar to the one they left behind.
The study also looked at how the length of time spent away from religion affected these attitudes. The researchers calculated the percentage of each formerly religious participant’s life spent as a nonreligious person. They found that the longer someone had been away from religion, the lower their right-wing authoritarianism scores tended to be.
In contrast, the amount of time spent as a nonreligious person was entirely unrelated to left-wing authoritarianism scores. This detail suggests that the adoption of left-wing authoritarian attitudes can happen rapidly after a person leaves their faith.
The study relies on self-reported data collected at a single point in time. This cross-sectional design means the research captures a snapshot of attitudes but cannot prove that leaving a religion directly changes a person’s level of authoritarianism. A longitudinal study, which follows the same individuals over many years, would be needed to track exactly how an individual’s right-wing authoritarianism might convert into left-wing authoritarianism during the deconversion process.
The participants in this research were also exclusively based in the United States. Authoritarianism and religious fundamentalism manifest differently depending on regional cultures and specific religious traditions. The experiences of individuals leaving Christianity in the United States likely differ from those leaving other religions in different geopolitical climates. The rates at which former believers adopt new authoritarian mindsets might vary substantially across different cultural contexts.
Future research could explore the specific psychological motives that drive this shift in authoritarian targets. Leaving a religion often causes a loss of meaning, community, and certainty. Adopting a strict, authoritarian political ideology might serve as a coping mechanism to quickly replace the sense of security and group identity that a former religion once provided.
The study, “Residual Authoritarianism: Religious Dones Report the Highest Levels of Left-Wing Authoritarianism,” was authored by Daryl R. Van Tongeren and Shauna M. Bowes.
