RT Article
T1 Religious people view both science and religion as less epistemically valuable than non-religious people view science
JF Religion, brain & behavior
VO 15
IS 4
SP 374
OP 399
A1 Jackson, Joshua
A1 Jasko, Katarzyna
A1 Abrams, Samantha
A1 Atkinson, Tyler
A1 Balkcom, Evan
A1 Kruglanski, Arie W. 1939-
A1 Gray, Kurt
A1 Halberstadt, Jamin
A2 Jasko, Katarzyna
A2 Abrams, Samantha
A2 Atkinson, Tyler
A2 Balkcom, Evan
A2 Kruglanski, Arie W. 1939-
A2 Gray, Kurt
A2 Halberstadt, Jamin
LA English
YR 2025
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1947477129
AB Many religious people deny any conflict between religion and science, but nevertheless report less trust in science than non-religious people. We address this puzzle using insights from goal systems theory. Goal systems theory suggests that, when people have more means of achieving a goal, they perceive each individual means as less instrumental. We translate this “instrumentality hypothesis” to differences in how religious and non-religious people perceive science and religion. Religious people—who use both science and religion as means to gain knowledge—may perceive both as moderately instrumental, and as less instrumental than non-religious people view science. We support the instrumentality hypothesis in studies where participants evaluate the capacity of science and religion to explain extraordinary phenomena (Study 1), fill gaps in knowledge (Study 2), answer life's big questions (Study 3), and to help avoid COVID-19 infection (Study 4). We also find that non-religious people overperceive religious people's trust in religion and underperceive religious people's trust in science as sources of knowledge (Study 5). Non-religious people think that religion deters trust in science at the expense of high trust in religion, but instead, the typical religious person avoids extreme epistemic reliance on any single source of knowledge.
K1 goal systems theory
K1 Cross-cultural
K1 Science
K1 Religion
DO 10.1080/2153599X.2024.2363750