Religion has long been theorized to serve important functions for societies and individuals; specifically, as a source of knowledge about what is real and as a source of norms prescribing how individuals should behave. However, science and scientists appear to be playing an increasingly large role in public discourse. A majority of adults in the U.S. report interest in science and an increasing number are obtaining degrees in the sciences – more so among males than females. As a result, we examined (1) whether and how participants’ demographic background, religious background, and two indicators of well-being relate to a “belief in science” index, and (2) whether those relations differed among males and females. 560 young adults from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds participated. The findings presented here suggest that belief in science and religiosity are strongly inversely correlated, and if belief in science does confer emotion-related benefits, it may operate differently across demographic categories. Specifically, we find that belief in science is related to emotion dysregulation and death anxiety among males, but not females, even though females scored lower on these indicators of well-being overall.

长期以来，宗教被理论化为为社会和个人服务的重要功能。具体来说，作为关于什么是真实的知识的来源，以及作为规定个人应该如何行为的规范的来源。然而，科学和科学家似乎在公共话语中扮演着越来越重要的角色。大多数美国成年人表示对科学感兴趣，并且越来越多的人正在获得科学学位——男性比女性更是如此。因此，我们检查了 (1) 参与者的人口背景、宗教背景和两个幸福指数是否以及如何与“科学信仰”指数相关，以及 (2) 这些关系在男性和女性之间是否存在差异。来自不同种族和宗教背景的 560 名年轻人参加了会议。这里提出的研究结果表明，对科学的信仰和宗教信仰呈强烈的负相关，如果对科学的信仰确实带来了与情感相关的好处，那么它可能会在不同的人口统计类别中发挥不同的作用。具体来说，我们发现对科学的信念与男性的情绪失调和死亡焦虑有关，但与女性无关，尽管女性在这些总体幸福感指标上的得分较低。