Accordance and conflict between religious and scientific precautions against COVID-19 in 27 societies

Samore, T, Fessler, DMT, Sparks, AM, Holbrook, C, Aarøe, L, Baeza, CG, Barbato, MT, Barclay, P, Berniūnas, R, Contreras-Garduño, J, Costa-Neves, B, Del Pilar Grazioso, M, Elmas, P, Fedor, P, Fernandez, AM, Fernández-Morales, R, Garcia-Marques, L, Giraldo-Perez, P, Gul, P, Habacht, F, Hasan, Y, Hernandez, EJ, Jarmakowski, T, Kamble, S, Kameda, T, Kim, B, Kupfer, TR ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1147-6082, Kurita, M, Li, NP, Lu, J, Luberti, FR, Maegli, MA, Mejia, M, Morvinski, C, Naito, A, Ng'ang'a, A, Nascimento De Oliveira, A, Posner, DN, Prokop, P, Shani, Y, Paniagua Solorzano, WO, Stieger, S, Suryani, AO, Tan, LKL, Tybur, JM, Viciana, H, Visine, A, Wang, J and Wang, X-T, 2024. Accordance and conflict between religious and scientific precautions against COVID-19 in 27 societies. Religion, Brain and Behavior. ISSN 2153-599X

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Abstract

Meaning-making systems underlie perceptions of the efficacy of threat-mitigating behaviors. Religion and science both offer threat mitigation, yet these meaning-making systems are often considered incompatible. Do such epistemological conflicts swamp the desire to employ diverse precautions against threats? Or do individuals—particularly individuals who are highly reactive to threats—hedge their bets by using multiple threat-mitigating practices despite their potential epistemological incompatibility? Complicating this question, perceptions of conflict between religion and science likely vary across cultures; likewise, pragmatic features of precautions prescribed by some religions make them incompatible with some scientifically-based precautions. The COVID-19 pandemic elicited diverse precautions thus providing an opportunity to investigate these questions. Across 27 societies from five continents (N = 7,844), in the majority of countries, individuals’ practice of religious precautions such as prayer correlates positively with their use of scientifically-based precautions. Prior work indicates that greater adherence to tradition likely reflects greater reactivity to threats. Unsurprisingly given associations between many traditions and religion, valuing tradition is predictive of employing religious precautions. However, consonant with its association with threat reactivity, we also find that traditionalism predicts adherence to public health precautions—a pattern that underscores threat-avoidant individuals’ apparent tolerance for epistemological conflict in pursuit of safety.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Religion, Brain and Behavior
Creators:	Samore, T., Fessler, D.M.T., Sparks, A.M., Holbrook, C., Aarøe, L., Baeza, C.G., Barbato, M.T., Barclay, P., Berniūnas, R., Contreras-Garduño, J., Costa-Neves, B., Del Pilar Grazioso, M., Elmas, P., Fedor, P., Fernandez, A.M., Fernández-Morales, R., Garcia-Marques, L., Giraldo-Perez, P., Gul, P., Habacht, F., Hasan, Y., Hernandez, E.J., Jarmakowski, T., Kamble, S., Kameda, T., Kim, B., Kupfer, T.R., Kurita, M., Li, N.P., Lu, J., Luberti, F.R., Maegli, M.A., Mejia, M., Morvinski, C., Naito, A., Ng'ang'a, A., Nascimento De Oliveira, A., Posner, D.N., Prokop, P., Shani, Y., Paniagua Solorzano, W.O., Stieger, S., Suryani, A.O., Tan, L.K.L., Tybur, J.M., Viciana, H., Visine, A., Wang, J. and Wang, X.-T.
Publisher:	Informa UK Limited
Date:	5 September 2024
ISSN:	2153-599X
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1080/2153599x.2024.2363757 DOI 2329574 Other
Rights:	© 2024 Informa UK Limited. CC BY licence. Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Jeremy Silvester
Date Added:	20 Dec 2024 15:02
Last Modified:	20 Dec 2024 15:02
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52756

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