Global Perceptions of Religious and Non-Religious Scientists

Previous research investigating perception of science and scientists indicates that certain physical, behavioural, and belief system-related attributes are associated with scientists. Some of these include white, male, reserved, and devoted to work. The current research takes an international approach into perceptions of science and scientists related to (non-)religious social identity. Four studies (n = 1146) across 4 countries (UK, Germany, Spain, Argentina) investigates perceptions of scientists with religious social identity. This research included several targets with multiple identities, combining (non-)religious identity (religious, spiritual, atheist, non-religious, or none specified) and scientist identity (scientist or evolutionary scientist). Findings show that the perceiver’s own (non-) religious social identity relates to their view of scientists. Additionally, exploration of trust in scientists with differing (non-)religious identities by personal (non-) religious identification revealed not only an ingroup bias, but an overarching bias towards a scientist without any (non-)religious identification, which provides an interesting avenue to further explore.