Public Underst Sci
 2023
DOI: 10.1177/09636625231217900
|Get access via publisher |Summarize |Cite
|
Sign up to set email alerts

Delineating between scientism and science enthusiasm: Challenges in measuring scientism and the development of novel scale

Petar Lukić
1
,
Iris Žeželj
2

Abstract: Scientism proposes science to be an all-powerful human enterprise, able to answer not only all practical but also philosophical or moral questions. We are taking a psychological approach to scientism, studying uncritical trust in science and uncritical trust in scientists as a part of a unique attitudinal tendency. Our novel measure assesses both kinds of trust through short Thurstone scales allowing us to establish a clear threshold for endorsing scientism, thus effectively delineating it from science enthusi… Show more

Help me understand this report
View preprint versions

Search citation statements

Order By: Relevance

Paper Sections

Select...
5
1
0
0

Citation Types

0
3
0
0

Year Published

2024
2024
2026
2026

Publication Types

Select...
3
1
1

Relationship

0
5

Authors

Journals

citations

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)
references

References 51 publications

0
3
0
0
Order By: Relevance
“…This selection was based, in part, on the EFA results from study 1: items that did not load on to any factors were dropped, as were items that loaded on to the scientism factor. The scientism factor was dropped in part because of overlap with a scale intended to measure scientism specifically (Lukić & Žeželj, 2023); and because we came to believe that, for the purposes of understanding the dynamics of public scientific controversies, scientism could be reduced to the idea that science is especially trustworthy.…”
Section: Methodsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Participants were then presented with five blocks of "perceptions of science" questions, including the finalized VISS items, a subset of the OSI 2.0 (Kahan, 2017), and three blocks with measures of generalized trust in science (i.e., trust in science generally, rather than trust in particular scientists or scientific institutions): the Credibility of Science Scale (CoSS; Hartman et al, 2017), the scientism scale developed by Lukić & Žeželj (2023), and a block of ad hoc questions: A question from the Pew Research Center (Tyson, 2023), "Overall, science has had a(n) ____ effect on society," with options "mostly negative," "equally positive and negative," and "mostly negative," along with variations on the General Social Survey's "confidence in institutions" questions: "Here are some influential institutions in this country. As far as the people running these institutions are concerned, how much confidence would you say that you have in them?"…”
Section: Methodsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…effect: A question from the Pew Research Center on whether science has had a positive or negative effect on science (Tyson, 2023). scientism: the scientism scale of Lukić & Žeželj (2023). S6.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%
See 2 more Smart Citations
Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.
show abstract
“…This selection was based, in part, on the EFA results from study 1: items that did not load on to any factors were dropped, as were items that loaded on to the scientism factor. The scientism factor was dropped in part because of overlap with a scale intended to measure scientism specifically (Lukić & Žeželj, 2023); and because we came to believe that, for the purposes of understanding the dynamics of public scientific controversies, scientism could be reduced to the idea that science is especially trustworthy.…”
Section: Methodsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Participants were then presented with five blocks of "perceptions of science" questions, including the finalized VISS items, a subset of the OSI 2.0 (Kahan, 2017), and three blocks with measures of generalized trust in science (i.e., trust in science generally, rather than trust in particular scientists or scientific institutions): the Credibility of Science Scale (CoSS; Hartman et al, 2017), the scientism scale developed by Lukić & Žeželj (2023), and a block of ad hoc questions: A question from the Pew Research Center (Tyson, 2023), "Overall, science has had a(n) ____ effect on society," with options "mostly negative," "equally positive and negative," and "mostly negative," along with variations on the General Social Survey's "confidence in institutions" questions: "Here are some influential institutions in this country. As far as the people running these institutions are concerned, how much confidence would you say that you have in them?"…”
Section: Methodsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…effect: A question from the Pew Research Center on whether science has had a positive or negative effect on science (Tyson, 2023). scientism: the scientism scale of Lukić & Žeželj (2023). S6.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%
See 1 more Smart Citation
Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.
show abstract
Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.
show abstract
Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.
scite logo

Scite is an AI-powered platform that helps researchers discover and evaluate scientific literature through Smart Citations, showing whether studies support or contradict a claim. Now part of Research Solutions, Scite has indexed 1.6B+ citations, partners with 30+ publishers, and serves 2M users worldwide.

Contact Info

customersupport@researchsolutions.com

10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614

Henderson, NV 89052, USA

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Status

Copyright © 2026 Scite LLC. All rights reserved.

Made with 💙 for researchers

Part of the Research Solutions Family.

Research Solutions Logo