Abstract

The present research explores whether the use of overtly religious advertising by a sectarian university affects its academic reputation. The authors propose that individuals assume universities that engage in more (vs. less) overt religious advertising devote a greater proportion of their institutional resources toward religious education. Further, they posit that individuals exhibit zero-sum thinking about resource allocation whereby they believe that a university’s provision of greater resources toward religion education implies the availability of fewer resources for other academic programs and disciplines. As such, whereas overtly religious advertising can bolster individuals’ evaluations of programs and disciplines closely related to religion (e.g., divinity, theology), it can adversely affect evaluations of programs and disciplines in other areas (e.g., science, engineering, business, economics). Finally, the authors suggest that individuals’ zero-sum thinking has the potential to create the most reputational harm for a religious university’s scientific programs and disciplines due to the presumption of many individuals—even those who consider themselves religious—that religion and science are antithetical. This theorizing is empirically supported by six experiments with over 2,400 participants.

摘要

本研究探讨宗派大学公开使用宗教广告是否会影响其学术声誉。作者提出，个人假设从事更多（相对于更少）公开宗教广告的大学将其机构资源的更大比例用于宗教教育。此外，他们假设个人对资源分配表现出零和思维，他们认为大学为宗教教育提供更多资源意味着其他学术课程和学科的可用资源更少。因此，虽然公开的宗教广告可以增强个人对与宗教密切相关的课程和学科（例如神学、神学）的评价，它会对其他领域（如科学、工程、商业、经济学）的项目和学科的评估产生不利影响。最后，作者认为个人的零和思维有可能对宗教大学的科学课程和学科造成最大的声誉损害，因为许多人——甚至是那些认为自己信教的人——认为宗教和科学是对立的. 这种理论得到了六个实验的经验支持，该实验有超过 2,400 名参与者。作者认为，个人的零和思维有可能对宗教大学的科学课程和学科造成最大的声誉损害，因为许多人——甚至那些认为自己是宗教信仰的人——认为宗教和科学是对立的。这种理论得到了六个实验的经验支持，该实验有超过 2,400 名参与者。作者认为，个人的零和思维有可能对宗教大学的科学课程和学科造成最大的声誉损害，因为许多人——甚至那些认为自己是宗教信仰的人——认为宗教和科学是对立的。这种理论得到了六个实验的经验支持，该实验有超过 2,400 名参与者。