In the test, participants were placed in groups of two. Each person was given headphones and a "weapon" — a button that would produce a noise frequency that could be as loud as a smoke alarm.

The students each pressed a button as fast as possible for 25 trials and the slowest of the pair would receive a blast in the ears.

The winning button-pusher could choose how loud to make the sound in the other person's ears. Aggression was measured by the frequency with which the winning students blasted their partners.

The study indicated that those with a stronger religious background responded with slightly more hostility — and louder blasts — than those who were not as religious.

And Ridge says that indicates a correlation between aggression and isolated violent passages.

The correlation also mirrors studies that show the relationship between hostility and violent movies, music or video games. The key difference is that if scriptures are read as a whole and not taken out of context, the results can be the opposite, Ridge says, as the overall themes of the Bible, specifically, are peace and love.

"We're not saying that just in and of itself violent media is uniformly bad but oftentimes there is no redeeming context to it," Ridge said. "If one reads the scriptures with an understanding of context, both historical as well as with a (desire) to hear what God is trying to teach us, you can read it in a different way. But if a person dives into (a violent passage) without the context, you could probably get some increased aggression."

Daniel Judd, BYU professor of ancient scripture, who was not involved in the study, said he agrees with the importance of understanding scriptural context.

Taken by itself, a scriptural passage can wrongly rationalize negative behavior, he says.

"You can use scripture to justify anything you're looking for," Judd said.

Ridge received approval from BYU's institutional review board before he conducted his test, but the board only serves to make sure proposed research projects are scientifically sound, not politically correct. Ridge said he had some trepidation about how his report will be received, but he hopes people will read the study before making final judgment.

As a highly religious university with a scriptural curriculum requirement, the study is somewhat ironic in its setting. But BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins says she hopes people won't hear of the study and get the wrong idea.

"Our concern is with how people will perceive the conclusion," Jenkins said. "But like all research, it does need to be studied carefully."

---

E-mail: achoate@desnews.com