Under Construction

The first part of the following is my personal observations from Christian groups I have belonged to with a large number of fundamentalists and articles in a fundamentalist newsletter I use to get. They are not statistically rigorous.
I am a Christian who has "moderate" beliefs in things like "Theistic Evolution" (The version taught in most main line Seminaries).
The second part is based on more academic observations.

According to Lionel Caplan, Studies in Religious Fundamentalism (1987):
Fundamentalism has come to identify conservative evangelicals inside the mainline Protestant denominations, as well as the charismatic sects which comprise what is now the fastest-moving current within the Christian world. In the American setting, it no longer exemplifies the hill-billy element in rural or small-town Protestantism, as it did half a century ago.

The recent fundamentalist movement has been/is lead by people like Pat Robertson (Christian Coalition and The 700 Club) and Ralph Reed (Christian Coalition), Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Falwell (Moral majority) and to some extent evangelicals like Bill Bright (Campus Crusade for Christ) and James Dobson (Focus on the Family).

I couldn't find reliable estimates for the number of fundamental christians, partially I expect, because of the loose definition of fundamental. According to an article on the 2000 primaries: "In Michigan, fundamentalist Christians are far less of a force than in South Carolina. About 13 to 17 percent of the population considers itself part of the Christian right, compared to more than a third in South Carolina.

In a 2004 CPANDA (Cultural Policy and the Arts National Data Archive Princeton University) study 19% described themselves as fundamentalist or evangelical Christians.

The German Partei Bibeltreuer Christen (PBC) estimated 20 to 30 percent of Americans can be described as fundamental Christians.

Politics:
Fundamentalists tend to be republican. According to a 2007 Iowa poll of likely caucus participants, slightly more than one-half of those in the Republican group consider themselves "born-again" or fundamentalist Christians. In the Democratic camp, 20 percent consider themselves fundamentalist Christians.

This is reflected in the politics of abortion, gay rights, environmental issues and more.
See:
Religion and Politics
Famous Trials and Supreme Court Decisions

Science:
Fundamentalists tend to distrust scientists. The predominant issue is Evolution & Creation, but there are also issues like genetic engineering (e.g. stem-cell research).
Many if not most fundamentalists do not, or did not several years ago, believe in global warming.
They point to verses like [Genesis 8:22], "As long as the earth endures, ... cold and heat, ..., will never cease." to show that it is a natural cycle and not influenced by man.
However, some are coming around; On his Aug. 3, 2006 "700 Club" television show, Pat Robertson said: "It (an unusually warm Aug.) is the most convincing evidence of global warming I've run into in a long time." Story at BeliefNet. [Actually the less than 1° average change at lower latitudes would not be detectible].

They use examples like atheist Carl Segan to show scientists are against religion. Actually scientists are more than 4:1 people of faith. See scientists of faith.

The Environment in general (conservation, clean air & water, etc):

Forty-five senators and 186 representatives in 2003 earned 80- to 100-percent approval ratings from the nation's three most influential Christian right advocacy groups -- the Christian Coalition, Eagle Forum, and Family Research Council. Many of those same lawmakers also got flunking grades - less than 10 percent, on average - from the League of Conservation Voters last year.
Grist.org explains it as follows:
"Many Christian fundamentalists feel that concern for the future of our planet is irrelevant, because it has no future. They believe we are living in the End Time, when the son of God will return."

Others use [Genesis 1:29-30],

Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground--everything that has the breath of life in it--I give every green plant for food." And it was so.

At Home:
Fundamentalists believe in strict discipline and obedience in a family hierarchy with the man in charge.
Women should be subservient to men. [Ephesians 5:22-24].

Most fundamentalists support corporal (spanking, etc.) punishment of children in school and at home.
See: Protestant Fundamentalism and Support of Corporal Punishment.

At school:
Fundamentalists believe that the separation of church and state should not preclude pryers in school or the teaching of creationism or intelligent design along with evolution which would be presented as a theory not fact. See Evolution & Creation.

They also believe in corporal punishment to maintain discipline.

Divorce:
Other studies show fundamentalists have a higher divorce rate than the average Christian and the average American. The cause-effect relationship of this is unclear:
1. It could be the trauma of divorce pushes people to fundamentalism.
2. It could be there is something in fundamentalist beliefs (e.g. women should be subservient to men. [Ephesians 5:22-24]) that leads to divorce.
3. It could be some common personality or social trait of individuals leads to both.
However, Brooks_[1] says "They score highly on subjective measures of marital happiness."

In my view, fundamentalists are overly concerned about fighting people with a different worldview (Muslims, socialists [e.g. progressive political issues such as universal healthcare, welfare], homosexuals, pro-choicers, scientists [paleontologists, evolutionary biologists, stem cell researchers, climate researchers, ...], environmentalists ...).

One explanation is the need for enemies is evolutionary. Primitive tribes which survived were those who could slay their enemies; Xenophobia is a natural outcome.

However, in "Fundamentalists are just like us", at NewScientist.com Michael Brooks says No.
"Studies show no general inclination towards prejudice, at least in areas where people's behavior does not conflict with their moral values." "They score highly on subjective measures of marital happiness (see divorce below), optimism and self-control, and have a low incidence of depression and anxiety. ...They belong to the much larger group of people that psychologists class as "intrinsically" religious: they absorb a creed, believe it is the right thing to believe, and do their utmost to work out its implications in their lives", he says.

Sara Savage, who researches the psychology of religion at the University of Cambridge says: Secular western culture doesn't provide a "grand narrative" to participate in. It offers multiple options for making sense of the world around us - a mess that most human minds struggle to deal with.

Scott Atran, who studies group dynamics at the University of Michigan, says: "They are nice people. I certainly find very little hatred; they act out of love," he says.
"It's mostly small group dynamics rather than personal psychology or indoctrination," he says.
Because fundamentalist groups are at odds the dominant culture, maintaining the group's fundamentalist world view demands isolation from that culture. The first casualty is tolerance of diversity.

Part of the answer lies in fundamentalists' need to bolster group identity by reframing their beliefs in the terms of the dominant culture. In a secular, scientific culture, Savage points out, a certain level of evidence is generally required in order for knowledge to count and for individuals to act on it. Fundamentalists respond by attempting to "prove" their core beliefs: they "science-up" their faith, framing it in a way that they think ought to make sense to a scientific culture. Their claims then become, in their eyes at least, as valid as science's claims. No wonder scientists find fundamentalists' claims so infuriating: they are operating on patently false credentials.

According to James Barr, professor of Hebrew Bible at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and author of a number of books critical of Christian fundamentalism, these false credentials have produced a "deep intellectual self-distrust" that shows itself in an insatiable craving for intellectual credibility.
According to Barr, fundamentalists have failed to gain intellectual acceptance even within mainstream Christian scholarship. Because the fundamentalists come to the Bible with a partisan agenda, they are unable to offer any striking insights. As a result, fundamentalist biblical scholarship is "sterile", he says. Fundamentalist Christianity is widely considered as irrelevant to modern theology as it is to modern science.

Personality Types:
My guess is that fundamentalists are types like ENFP (Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceptive - Can usually find compelling reasons for whatever they want) on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality inventory. James Dobson, evangelical psychologist, is an ENFP.

books - Articles:
Culture Warrior, Bill O'Riley, 2006
"Personality and charismatic experience among adult christians", Francis and Jones, Pastoral Psychology, Vol 45, Num 6, Jan. 1997

Links:
1. "Fundamentalists are just like us" at NewScientist , 8 Oct., 2005 by Michael Brooks - same as "Fundamentalism - Meeting of minds" (pdf version with images).
Fundamentalist or Fundamental?
Fundamentalism and Authoritarianism at Fundamentally Aware.
Religion and the Environment
Personality and religion: Applying Cattell's model among secondary school pupils by Leslie Francis and Rosamund Bourke, U. of Wales, 2001.
Gay Marriage
The Royal Society of London fights battle royal over creationism, global warming.
scientists of faith.
Evolution & Creation

Return to Fundamentalism.