Quest Religion, Anti‐Fundamentalism, and Limited Versus Universal Compassion

Goldfried and Miner (2002) claimed to provide evidence that those high in quest religion are less likely to help a religiously closed‐minded person even when the help does not promote closed‐mindedness. As a result, they concluded that quest religion is associated with limited, not universal, compassion. An experiment modeled on theirs but avoiding several methodological problems suggested a very different conclusion. Although participants high in quest religion helped a religiously closed‐minded person less when doing so promoted closed‐mindedness, they were no less likely to help such a person when it did not promote closed‐mindedness. These results suggest that quest religion is associated with antipathy toward promoting closed‐mindedness, not with antipathy toward religiously closed‐minded persons. The scope of compassion associated with quest religion does not appear to be limited in the way Goldfried and Miner claimed.