Measuring How Individuals Relate Science to Religion

When trying to make sense of what is going on in the world and their personal lives, people often refer to scientific and religious explanations. Based on pertinent literature, we introduce a novel self-report instrument that captures five types of how people subjectively conceptualize the science-religion relationship. In addition to examining the psychometric properties of the new instrument, we tested whether these five types of conceptualizations are ordered along a single continuum of conflict vs. compatibility. In doing so, we ran and compared two unidimensional item response theory (IRT) models; a generalized partial credit model (GPCM) and a generalized graded unfolding model (GGUM), both in a German (total N = 2,920) and in a U.S. (N = 1,197) sample. We examined model fit statistics to determine the best-fitting model and examined measurement precision at the scale and the item levels. Finally, we tested measurement invariance across countries (i.e., Germany and the United States), as well as the discriminant, convergent, and criterion-related validity of our new instrument. Our results suggest that public perceptions of the relationship between science and religion are best captured by an unfolding response process (i.e. GGUM) and vary systematically across cultural contexts. In addition, U.S. participants perceived higher levels of conflict than their German counterparts. This research contributes to our theoretical understanding of science-religion perceptions and provides a validated measure for future cross-cultural research.