At least superficially, conservative political and religious ideology is thought to be associated with rule following and morality; the opposite was found at least in relation to bullying behavior

The curious link between politics, religion, and bullying behavior. Kilian James Garvey. Human Behavior and Evolution Society 31st annual meeting. Boston 2019. http://tiny.cc/aa1w6y

Abstract: In the current stratified political and religious era, many accusations of who is more likely to engage in bullying behavior have been tossed about. Conservatives and religious populations claim that liberals and secular populations engage in more, and vice versa. In this study, demographic data from all 50 US states were analyzed to find relationships among ideology and bullying behavior. The predictor variables of poverty, church attendance, and political ideology were entered into a linear regression model with bullying behavior as the outcome variable. The results of the model indicated that while all predictors were associated with bullying behavior, only state wide conservative political ideology could account for state variation (R2 =.406, F(1,46)=28.67, p<.001). At least superficially, conservative political and religious ideology is thought to be associated with rule following and morality. However, in this analysis of the data, quite the opposite was found at least in relation to bullying behavior. It will be suggested that in-group preferences of conservative political and religious populations may react to the increasing diversity of the US population with bullying behavior.