By: Teddy Grant

According to a recent study, people who believe that Jesus Christ was white tend to have racist or anti-Black sentiments.

In a report published in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, researchers surveyed 179 Christian college students at a private university in the MidWest, 70 percent of whom were white, on whether they thought that Jesus was white, Black or another race. according to the Academic Times.

According to their findings, researchers determined that dominant groups that believe that Jesus was the same race as them help the group “Maintain power and legitimacy,” per The Academic Times.

Per the report, the 84 students who believed that Jesus was white had negative views and explicit biases about Black people and expressed warmer attitudes toward white people. Around 95 students in the study thought that Jesus was not white.

“It’s associating godliness with whiteness,” Simon Howard, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of psychology at Marquette University, told the publication.