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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

2018

Religion

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Are Biological Science Knowledge, Interests, And Science Identity Framed By Religious And Political Perspectives In The United States?, Joseph C. Jochman, Alexis Swendener, Julia Mcquillan, Luke Novack Aug 2018

Are Biological Science Knowledge, Interests, And Science Identity Framed By Religious And Political Perspectives In The United States?, Joseph C. Jochman, Alexis Swendener, Julia Mcquillan, Luke Novack

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Science trust and views of science differ by political and religious orientations. In this study we examine whether political and religious perspectives are also associated with biological science knowledge, science interest, and general science identity. Results show that conservative Protestants have lower biological science knowledge than other religious groups on several specific topics. Party affiliation is associated with vaccine knowledge but not science interest and identity. Adjusting for demographic characteristics explains some political and religious group differences, but not all. We discuss implications regarding attention to potential political and religious framings of science topics in public education efforts.


Cross-National Variation In The Social Origins And Religious Consequences Of Religious Non-Affiliation, Philip Schwadel Jan 2018

Cross-National Variation In The Social Origins And Religious Consequences Of Religious Non-Affiliation, Philip Schwadel

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

I argue that the social implications of religious non-affiliation vary across cultural contexts, leading to differences across nations in both who is likely to be unaffiliated and the religious consequences of such non-affiliation. I test these propositions by examining cross-national variation in associations with non-affiliation using multilevel models and cross-sectional survey data from almost 70,000 respondents in 52 nations. The results indicate that: 1) both individual characteristics (gender, age, and marital status) and nation-level attributes (GDP, communism, and regulation of religion) strongly predict religious non-affiliation; 2) differences in non-affiliation by individual-level attributes—women vs. men, old vs. young, and married vs. …