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Is courage more than just facing fear? We tested the hypothesis that perceived value of the goal, in addition to the perceived riskiness of the action, predicts the extent to which an action is rated as courageous. Participants (300 US undergraduates and 1,254 US residents recruited online) read about either Caitlyn Jenner's public gender transition or Kim Davis's refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Participants then rated how courageous, risky, and valuable the action was. They also completed a Moral Traditionalism scale. Results indicated that across both samples and both conditions, courage was significantly predicted by the value of the goal, with risk of the action a smaller but mostly significant predictor. Adding Moral Traditionalism as a predictor did not alter these patterns. Results of this study support the inclusion of goal value as an important component of accolade courage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkish politics is changing rapidly, as is the place of religion in its public square. In this context, it is useful to ask who prioritizes religious identity and who does not. Our social-psychological approach emphasizes the importance of understanding why religion is more central to certain individuals' sense of self than others. We analyze data from an original, nationally representative survey of over 2,000 adults in Turkey that includes a measure of how strongly respondents identify with religion (among other identity options). We run statistical regression analysis to assess how well existing theories of religiosity in general explain the under-explored theoretical and empirical domain of religious identification. Our findings indicate that ideological conservatism, religious fundamentalism, and minority religious group status have significant implications for one's strength of identification with religion. These results underscore the importance of future research into the psychological roots of attachment to religion and religious identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As agents of the state rather than private individuals while working, U.S. public schoolteachers' 'free exercise rights' are sharply curtailed to prevent them from (dis)favoring any one religion. Are there public schoolteachers who chafe against these constraints, wishing instead for religious accommodations that would grant them the flexibility to refuse to teach required curricular content, or engage in some other form of religious expression or activity in the classroom? If so, who are these teachers, demographically, professionally, religiously, and politically speaking? To answer these questions, we analyze data from an original national email survey of 5,273 U.S. public schoolteachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]