Religion, magical thinking and trust in science: Comparing East versus West.
(2011) International Association for the Psychology of Religion Conference — Location: Bari, Italy (21.August.2011)
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- Previous studies in Western contexts suggest that individual religiosity may be in conflict with rationality: it often relates to high magical thinking and low trust in science. Does this hold for Eastern religions and cultures? Using the religion module III (2008) of the International Social Survey Program, we analyzed data from Buddhists, Protestants, and Catholics in South Korea (Ns = 358, 391, 135), as well as Catholics and Protestants in predominantly Catholic and Protestant countries (Austria and Denmark; Ns = 715, 1545). Results confirmed a positive association between religious measures and magical thinking across all groups, except for Korean Protestants and Catholics, among which the association was negative, possibly because of a contrast effect between "rational" Christianity and ancestors' religion. Moreover, whereas among Westerners religiosity predicted low trust in science, the opposite hold for all religious Korean groups, an effect suggesting that the reason may be culture and not religion
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Clobert, M., & Saroglou, V. (2011). Religion, magical thinking and trust in science: Comparing East versus West. International Association for the Psychology of Religion Conference, Bari, Italy. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/63207