Religious Diversity and Social Prejudice

Society’s diversity, including religious diversity, can be a valuable source of social capital for human development. However, this diversity is often seen from social prejudice point of view. Social prejudice against people of different religions can be a latent danger that can hinder human development. This research looks into how social prejudices against people of different religions arise. The theory applied in this research is Social Prejudice Theory. Prejudice is a negative attitude towards a particular group that is not based on sufficient evidence. In the context of prejudices, negative feelings are expressed through negative labels and superior feelings toward people from different groups. Tensions between religious groups, as well as previous negative interactions, can lead to prejudice. This study used a survey method with 81 respondents. The results showed that 13.6 per cent of respondents spoke negatively towards people of different religions and 9.9 percent of respondents gave negative labels to people of different religions. Because all of the study’s participants are high school students, it means that many of the digital natives still lack religious tolerance literacy. The findings also show that unfavorable social prejudices towards various religious groups still exist. This prejudice demonstrates the importance of human development in the direction of tolerance literacy so that differences can be turned into social capital for human development.