Religion for the Right: Religion's Role in Right Wing Extremism

Does religiosity predict right wing extremism (RWE)? Religion is a common point of contention in right wing extremist thought, characterized by authoritarianism, ethnocentrism, and nationalism, as it emphasizes pride in an individual’s own religion whilst devaluing others’. This paper investigates whether the religiosity of an individual affects their support of RWE. This paper proposes that religiosity, how much someone participates in their religion, functions as a form of recruitment grounds for extremist ideologies and can serve as a throughline for right wing extremism. I test this theory with weighted data from the American National Election Studies 2024 survey regarding religiosity and qualities of right wing extremism, and use OLS regression to analyze the data. This paper expects to find that religiosity positively correlates with support for RWE. By identifying predictors of right wing extremism, legislators can better account for shifts in public opinion when these predictors are on the rise in the larger population.