THE ROLE OF PERSONALITY, COGNITIVE, ENVIRONMENTAL AND GENETIC FACTORS AS DETERMINANTS OF RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM: A TWIN STUDY IN A POLISH SAMPLE

This study has sought to identify the determinants of religious fundamentalism. The following hypothetical determinants were tested, genetic influence, environmental influence, and such psychological variables as anxiety and assumptions about the nature of the social world. It was assumed that tran anxiety and assumptions about the social world are mediators of religious fundamentalism The study was not on 112 participants (29 women and 83 men) aged from 18 to 28 years, the sample consisted of 19 monozygotic and 37 dizygotic pairs of twins reared together The results of structural equation modeling showed that religious fundamentalism is mainly determined by environmental influences (38% hen table) whereas trait anxiety and assumptions about the nature of the social world are largely genetically determined (60% hen table) Correlation analysis revealed a positive relationship between trait anxiety and negative social world view but, contrary to the hypothesis, the results of multiple regression analysis suggest that Iran anxiety is the only predictor of religious fundamentalism