title: Scientific faith: Belief in science increases in the face of stress and existential anxiety.
abstract: Growing evidence indicates that religious belief helps individuals to cope with stress and anxiety. But is this effect specific to supernatural beliefs, or is it a more general function of belief - including belief in science? We developed a measure of belief in science and conducted two experiments in which we manipulated stress and existential anxiety. In Experiment 1, we assessed rowers about to compete (high-stress condition) and rowers at a training session (low-stress condition). As predicted, rowers in the high-stress group reported greater belief in science. In Experiment 2, participants primed with mortality (vs. participants in a control condition) reported greater belief in science. In both experiments, belief in science was negatively correlated with religiosity. Thus, some secular individuals may use science as a form of "faith" that helps them to deal with stressful and anxiety-provoking situations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, England, UK.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Farias
authors.forename: Anna-Kaisa
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Newheiser
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kahane
authors.forename: Zoe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: de Toledo
keywords: Belief; Belief in science; Existential anxiety; Religious belief; Stress