Are scientists biased against Christians? Exploring real and perceived bias against Christians in academic biology
Are scientists biased against Christians? Exploring real and perceived bias against Christians in academic biology
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0226826
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发表时间：
2020-01-29
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Brownell, Sara E.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Barnes, M. Elizabeth;Truong, Jasmine M.;Brownell, Sara E.
基督徒是科学界代表性最低的群体之一，一个可能的解释是科学家对基督徒学生有偏见，这可能会阻碍并积极阻止基督徒学生成为科学家。虽然社会上普遍认为科学界对基督徒有偏见，但我们不知道经常与科学家互动的理科学生是否感受到这种偏见。此外，没有研究人员试图通过实验证明科学中存在对基督徒的偏见。为了解决文献中的这些空白，我们设计了三项研究。在第一项研究中，我们发现大学理科学生报告了对科学中基督徒的偏见，福音派基督徒比天主教和非基督徒学生感受到更大的偏见。然后在两项研究中，生物学教授评估博士学位。我们研究了当学生透露基督教宗教身份时，教授们是否会对学生的评价不那么好。我们发现，生物学教授如何评价一个学生谁是基督教协会主席相比，学生谁是无神论者协会主席或学生谁是活动协会主席没有统计学上的显着差异。然而，在研究3中，生物学教授确实将一名参加校园十字军东征使命之旅的基督徒学生评为比一名没有透露基督徒身份的学生更不适合雇用，更不称职，更不讨人喜欢。总而言之，这些研究表明，科学界对基督徒的偏见可能导致基督徒的代表性不足，但科学界对基督徒的实际偏见可能仅限于科学家称之为原教旨主义和/或福音派的特定类型的基督教。
Christians are one of the most underrepresented groups in science, and one potential explanation is that scientists have a bias against Christian students, which could discourage and actively prevent Christian students from becoming scientists. Although there is a general perception in society that there is bias against Christians in science, we do not know whether science students, who frequently interact with scientists, perceive this bias. Further, no researchers have attempted to experimentally document the existence of bias against Christians in science. To address these gaps in the literature, we designed three studies. In the first study, we found that college science students report a perceived bias against Christians in science and that evangelical Christians perceive greater bias than Catholic and non-Christian students. Then in two studies, biology professors evaluated Ph.D. program applicants and we examined whether the professors rated a student less favorably when the student revealed a Christian religious identity. We found no statistically significant differences in how biology professors rated a student who was President of the Christian Association compared to a student who was President of the Atheist Association or a student who was President of the Activities Association. However, in Study 3, biology professors did rate a Christian student who went on a mission trip with Campus Crusade for Christ as less hire-able, less competent, and less likeable than a student who did not reveal a Christian identity. Taken together, these studies indicate that perceived bias against Christians in science may contribute to underrepresentation of Christians but actual bias against Christians in science may be restricted to a specific type of Christianity that scientists call fundamentalist and/or evangelical.