Religion, Religiosity, and Socio-Political Attitudes in South Korea

Despite the fact that religion is an important part of life for manyKoreans, not much systematic literature exists investigating theeffect of religion and religiosity on the various aspects of socialand political orientations. By utilizing a socio-psychologicalapproach that incorporates the “three Bs” of religion - belonging, behaving, and believing - this research investigates how psychologicalattachment to a religious denomination makes a differencein individuals’ socio-political attitudes in South Korea. This articlesuggests that both self-religious identification and the level ofcommitment to a religion influence the ways that individuals reactto social and political issues. Interestingly, spiritual people withouta particular religious affiliation share many social and politicalattitudes with religious identifiers, thereby confirming that therelationship between religion and individual social and politicalorientations should be studied from a socio-psychological approachconsidering the level of religious commitment, rather than from anethno-religious perspective that emphasizes only the belongingaspect of religion.