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Erschienen in: Journal of Religion and Health 1/2022

29.11.2021 | COVID-19 | Original Paper Zur Zeit gratis

Trust in God and/or Science? Sociodemographic Differences in the Effects of Beliefs in an Engaged God and Mistrust of the COVID-19 Vaccine

verfasst von: Laura Upenieks, Joanne Ford-Robertson, James E. Robertson

Erschienen in: Journal of Religion and Health | Ausgabe 1/2022

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Abstract

At present, COVID-19 vaccines are widely available in the USA, but large proportions of the American populace remain unvaccinated. One possible source of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is a lack of trust in science. In this study, drawing from the large literature at the intersection of science and religion, we ask whether beliefs in an engaged God (the belief that God is involved in daily human affairs) predict mistrust of the COVID-19 vaccine and whether any observed association differs across race, gender, and education. Using nationally representative data from Wave 6 of the Baylor Religion Survey (2021), our results suggest that beliefs in an engaged God were associated with greater mistrust in the COVID-19 vaccine. This association was amplified for Hispanic and lower educated Americans. We argue that beliefs in an engaged God may promote a distrust of science, reduce motivation to get vaccinated, and derive comfort and strength by placing control over one’s life in the hands of a loving, involved deity. We also situate our findings within an emerging body of work on the “dark side” of religion and reflect on their implications for understanding the broader religion/health connection.
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Fußnoten
1
Though religious denominational differences in COVID-19 vaccine mistrust are not the central focus of this study, we note that both Catholicism and mainline Protestantism have mechanisms for synthesizing science and theology, so any contemporary conflict of knowledge with science would only be with white evangelicalism or fundamentalism (Evans, 2018). This conflict tends to be over a few narrow claims, mostly concerning the creation of the world and human origin (Evans & Hargittai, 2020). Although conservative Protestants have the intellectual ability to oppose a particular scientific claim, including those related to the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine, there are not alternative conservative Protestant claims about virology and epidemiology, so we would not necessarily expect this group to be less trusting of the COVID vaccine. Supplemental analyses (reported after the presentation of our main results) show this to be the case.
 
2
Some existing research shows that many Americans see the belief systems of science and faith as conflicting domains, often in terms of an epistemological divide (McPhetres & Nguyen, 2018; McPhetres, Jong, & Zuckerman, 2021; O’Brien & Noy, 2015). However, to be sure, science and faith mindsets do not necessarily conflict, as people can and do often rely on both religious and scientific beliefs (Ecklund & Scheitle, 2017).
 
3
Family income is not a strong predictor of science views and is not significant in many survey studies (Evans, 2013; Evans & Feng, 2013; Gauchat, 2015). With 30,000 cases, Gauchat (2012) did not find that those with lower incomes show lower levels of confidence in those who lead institutional science. For these reasons, then, we focus on education as in indicator of socioeconomic status with possible linkages to trust in the COVID-19 vaccine in the current study.
 
4
We follow advice from Lehman and Sherkat (2018, pg.782) for the coding of Black Protestants, where they note: “it is not appropriate to classify African American Protestants simply based on race as in Reltrad, where respondents who “don’t know which” type of Methodist or Baptist they are or claim to be “other” Methodists or Baptists coded as black Protestants if they are coded as black on race indicators.” Therefore, if respondents did not indicate being Evangelical Protestant, they were coded as Mainline Protestants.
 
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Metadaten
Titel
Trust in God and/or Science? Sociodemographic Differences in the Effects of Beliefs in an Engaged God and Mistrust of the COVID-19 Vaccine
verfasst von
Laura Upenieks
Joanne Ford-Robertson
James E. Robertson
Publikationsdatum
29.11.2021
Verlag
Springer US
Schlagwort
COVID-19
Erschienen in
Journal of Religion and Health / Ausgabe 1/2022
Print ISSN: 0022-4197
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-6571
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01466-5

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