TY - JOUR
T1 - The Einstein effect provides global evidence for scientific source credibility effects and the influence of religiosity
AU - Hoogeveen, Suzanne
AU - Haaf, Julia M.
AU - Bulbulia, Joseph A.
AU - Ross, Robert M.
AU - McKay, Ryan
AU - Altay, Sacha
AU - Bendixen, Theiss
AU - Berniūnas, Renatas
AU - Cheshin, Arik
AU - Gentili, Claudio
AU - Georgescu, Raluca
AU - Gervais, Will M.
AU - Hagel, Kristin
AU - Kavanagh, Christopher
AU - Levy, Neil
AU - Neely, Alejandra
AU - Qiu, Lin
AU - Rabelo, André
AU - Ramsay, Jonathan E.
AU - Rutjens, Bastiaan T.
AU - Turpin, Hugh
AU - Uzarevic, Filip
AU - Wuyts, Robin
AU - Xygalatas, Dimitris
AU - van Elk, Michiel
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
PY - 2022/4
Y1 - 2022/4
N2 - People tend to evaluate information from reliable sources more favourably, but it is unclear exactly how perceivers’ worldviews interact with this source credibility effect. In a large and diverse cross-cultural sample (N = 10,195 from 24 countries), we presented participants with obscure, meaningless statements attributed to either a spiritual guru or a scientist. We found a robust global source credibility effect for scientific authorities, which we dub ‘the Einstein effect’: across all 24 countries and all levels of religiosity, scientists held greater authority than spiritual gurus. In addition, individual religiosity predicted a weaker relative preference for the statement from the scientist compared with the spiritual guru, and was more strongly associated with credibility judgements for the guru than the scientist. Independent data on explicit trust ratings across 143 countries mirrored our experimental findings. These findings suggest that irrespective of one’s religious worldview, across cultures science is a powerful and universal heuristic that signals the reliability of information.
AB - People tend to evaluate information from reliable sources more favourably, but it is unclear exactly how perceivers’ worldviews interact with this source credibility effect. In a large and diverse cross-cultural sample (N = 10,195 from 24 countries), we presented participants with obscure, meaningless statements attributed to either a spiritual guru or a scientist. We found a robust global source credibility effect for scientific authorities, which we dub ‘the Einstein effect’: across all 24 countries and all levels of religiosity, scientists held greater authority than spiritual gurus. In addition, individual religiosity predicted a weaker relative preference for the statement from the scientist compared with the spiritual guru, and was more strongly associated with credibility judgements for the guru than the scientist. Independent data on explicit trust ratings across 143 countries mirrored our experimental findings. These findings suggest that irrespective of one’s religious worldview, across cultures science is a powerful and universal heuristic that signals the reliability of information.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85124371346&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41562-021-01273-8
DO - 10.1038/s41562-021-01273-8
M3 - Article
C2 - 35132171
AN - SCOPUS:85124371346
SN - 2397-3374
VL - 6
SP - 523
EP - 535
JO - Nature Human Behaviour
JF - Nature Human Behaviour
IS - 4
ER -