| abstract | Research has shown that individuals often subscribe to an explanatory belief system to make sense of the world around them.
Although the most well-studied explanatory belief system has been religion, for some people, a commitment to science serves some of the same functions as religion
such as increasing well-being, reducing anxiety, and providing guidelines for making moral judgments of others. The goal of this study was to determine if belief
in science sometimes serves as a functional equivalent to religion in terms of allowing an individual to evaluate the morality of their own actions. If science
serves a role similar to religion in terms of providing moral guidance, individuals with a moralized belief in science should feel shame and guilt over moral
transgressions when their beliefs are made salient (an effect that has been observed among religious individuals whose beliefs are salient). This study took
was conducted in two waves. In wave 1, participants completed the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire, the Moralized Religiosity scale, the
Belief in Science scale and the Moralized Rationality Scale in order to assess the strength of their beliefs in religion and science, and how strongly they
moralized these beliefs. In wave 2, participants completed a sentence-unscrambling task in either a control condition, a condition with science priming words,
or a condition with religious priming words. Participants were then asked to reflect and write about a situation in their past in which they were unsure about
the morality of their actions. Finally, participants completed a shortened version of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory and answered questions to assess their
state guilt. The results of the study indicated that religious individuals tended to be less anxious, and individuals high in scientific belief tended to
report higher levels of guilt. Contrary to predictions, religious individuals who were exposed to religious primes tended to feel lower levels of guilt.
Religious individuals also reported lower levels of anxiety when exposed to scientific primes. These findings indicate that religion and belief in science
do not appear to serve equivalent roles as belief systems. Making scientific beliefs salient had no effect on guilt or anxiety in those who moralize
scientific belief, but making religious belief salient decreased guilt in religious individuals. The implications of these findings are discussed in detail. |
