Humility and harmony: The influence of intellectual humility and religiousness on science-religion views

Views on the relationship between science and religion vary between conflict and compatibility. But compatibility views may be more common for those who are open to alternate viewpoints and who recognize the limits of their knowledge and understanding, characteristic of intellectual humility. Two studies (total N = 978) examined how science-religion attitudes are predicted by individual differences in intellectual humility and religiosity. Compatibility attitudes were strongly predicted by individual religiosity, and intellectual humility predicted greater compatibility beliefs when controlling for religiosity. In mediation analyses, there were negative indirect links between intellectual humility and compatibility views via greater religiosity, but the direct link was positive. This suggests that a positive link between intellectual humility and compatibility beliefs may be suppressed by the strong associations with general religiosity. Overall, these studies show intellectual humility is an important predictor of beliefs about the compatibility of science and religion, but this is entwined with the effects of religiosity.