Bastiaan Rutjens, Author at International Research Network for the Study of Science and Belief in Society

The relationship between religion and science in practice: The role of religiosity in complying with scientific health advice

Summary: Given the common narrative that religion and science are in conflict (Elsdon-Baker, 2019; Rutjens & Preston, 2020), we propose to explore the role of religiosity in compliance with differentially framed health-related advice based on scientific findings. In a UK pilot study (N=350), we found that less religious individuals trusted health-related scientific data more when they believed the data source was a scientific journal rather than the UK government (while controlling for political orientation). Highly religious participants instead trusted the data equally regardless of the source, suggesting that religious people are not biased against science. Responding to the INSBS Small Research Grants call, we take a novel approach to studying the religion-science relation by investigating whether religiosity plays a role in compliance with scientific health advice crossculturally. Compliance with health advice, such as social distancing, is extremely important when dealing with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic (and preventing a second wave).

S2 Episode 6: Science Scepticism around the World with Dr Bastiaan Rutjens

Understanding public attitudes towards science has become an increasingly important area of research in recent decades, and the importance of this kind of work has only been heightened by the emergence of COVID-19, and the diverse and unpredictable public responses to scientific and medical advice during the pandemic. In this episode Will and Richard talk to Dr Bastiaan Rutjens, who investigates public attitudes to science around the world, with a focus on what he describes as ‘science scepticism’. Baastian explains how tools and methods from social psychology can help us to understand the motivations which underlie scepticism of science, and we discuss the wider social and political implications of these kinds of attitudes. (This episode was recorded in March 2022) This podcast is 57 minutes and 03 seconds long. The keywords associated with this episode are: To learn more about Baastian’s work, we recommend you check out: Rutjens, B. T.