Spiritual skepticism? Heterogeneous science skepticism in the Netherlands

Rutjens, Bastiaan T.; Lee, Romy van der

doi:10.1177/0963662520908534

Cited by 60 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(86 reference statements)

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“…However, recent studies suggest that the negative relation between religiosity and trust in science might be US-specific and be weak or absent in other countries [91][92][93][94] . Additionally, although trust is likely closely linked to credibility, explicit trust assessments and credibility ratings of specific statements may diverge, perhaps particularly for the kind of obscure statements used in the current study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Einstein effect: Global evidence for scientific source credibility effects and the influence of religiosity

Hoogeveen¹,

Haaf²,

Bulbulia³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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People tend to evaluate information from reliable sources more favourably, but it is unclear exactly how perceivers' worldviews interact with this source credibility effect. Here, we present data from a cross-cultural study in which individuals (N = 10,195) from a religiously and culturally diverse sample of 24 countries were presented with obscure, meaningless statements attributed to either a spiritual guru or a scientist. The data indicate a robust global source credibility effect for scientific authorities, which we dub "the Einstein effect": across all 24 countries and all levels of religiosity, nonsense from a scientist was considered more credible than nonsense attributed to a spiritual guru. Additionally, individual religiosity predicted a weaker relative preference for the statement from the scientist vs. the spiritual guru, and was more strongly associated with credibility judgments for the guru than the scientist. Independent data on explicit trust ratings across 143 countries mirrored the experimental patterns. These findings suggest that irrespective of religious worldview, science is a powerful and universal heuristic that signals the reliability of information.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Einstein effect: Global evidence for scientific source credibility effects and the influence of religiosity

Hoogeveen¹,

Haaf²,

Bulbulia³

et al. 2020

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…Chan, 2018;Rutjens et al, 2018), conspiracy thinking (e.g. Lewandowsky et al, 2013;Rutjens & van der Lee, 2020) and, to some extent, education level (e.g. Morgan et al, 2018).…”

Section: Development Of the Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling compliance with COVID-19 prevention guidelines: the critical role of trust in science

Plohl

Musil

2020

Psychology, Health & Medicine

434

372

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The coronavirus pandemic is one of the biggest health crises of our time. In response to this global problem, various institutions around the world had soon issued evidence-based prevention guidelines. However, these guidelines, which were designed to slow the spread of COVID-19 and contribute to public well-being, are (deliberately) disregarded by some individuals. In the present study, we aimed to develop and test a multivariate model that could help us identify individual characteristics that make a person more/less likely to comply with COVID-19 prevention guidelines. A total of 525 attentive participants completed the online survey. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) show that COVID-19 risk perception and trust in science both independently predict compliance with COVID-19 prevention guidelines, while the remaining variables in the model (political conservatism, religious orthodoxy, conspiracy ideation and intellectual curiosity) do so via the mediating role of trust in science. The described model exhibited an acceptable fit (χ 2 (1611) = 2485.84, p < .001, CFI = .91, RMSEA = .032, SRMR = .055). These findings thus provide empirical support for the proposed multivariate model and underline the importance of trust in science in explaining the different levels of compliance with COVID-19 prevention guidelines.

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“…Science is an integral part of modern life. However, the historical authority of science can no longer be taken for granted (Higgins, 2016;Rutjens, Sutton, & van der Lee, 2018;Rutjens & van der Lee, 2020). Systematic and unwarranted rejection of science-that is, science skepticism-has become a major societal problem that can have severely damaging effects on individuals and societies.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Science Skepticism Across 24 Countries

Rutjens

Sengupta

Lee

et al. 2021

Social Psychological and Personality Science

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Efforts to understand and remedy the rejection of science are impeded by lack of insight into how it varies in degree and in kind around the world. The current work investigates science skepticism in 24 countries ( N = 5,973). Results show that while some countries stand out as generally high or low in skepticism, predictors of science skepticism are relatively similar across countries. One notable effect was consistent across countries though stronger in Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) nations: General faith in science was predicted by spirituality, suggesting that it, more than religiosity, may be the ‘enemy’ of science acceptance. Climate change skepticism was mainly associated with political conservatism especially in North America. Other findings were observed across WEIRD and non-WEIRD nations: Vaccine skepticism was associated with spirituality and scientific literacy, genetic modification skepticism with scientific literacy, and evolution skepticism with religious orthodoxy. Levels of science skepticism are heterogeneous across countries, but predictors of science skepticism are heterogeneous across domains.

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Spiritual skepticism? Heterogeneous science skepticism in the Netherlands

Cited by 60 publications

References 39 publications

The Einstein effect: Global evidence for scientific source credibility effects and the influence of religiosity

The Einstein effect: Global evidence for scientific source credibility effects and the influence of religiosity

Modeling compliance with COVID-19 prevention guidelines: the critical role of trust in science

Science Skepticism Across 24 Countries

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