Author: Bernard D. DiGregorio, Katie E. Corcoran, Christopher P. Scheitle, Mackenzie Freeman (West Virginia University)

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ABSTRACT

Prayer takes many forms, the most common of which is petitionary prayer, asking for something specific from someone/something perceived to be supernatural. Research has focused on praying for things such as healing and positive outcomes, with less emphasis on praying for harm to others. In this study, we define hostile prayer and, drawing on literature regarding deprivation theory, Biblical literalism, and regional cultures of violence, we theorize correlates of hostile prayer. Using nationally representative data of US adults, we find that income is inversely related to the odds of engaging in hostile prayer. In contrast, a belief in biblical literalism is associated with increased odds of engaging in hostile prayer, relative to other views of the Bible. We also find that men have significantly higher odds of engaging in hostile prayer relative to women, and those who live in the South, relative to those who live in the West or Midwest. We discuss these findings and limitations and propose directions for future research on hostile prayer.