Research Studies

Science and Religion

Elaine has conducted extensive research on how scientists view religion and how religious people view science. Her studies and initiatives include:

The Sociology of Science and Religion

From 2019 until 2023, Elaine and John Evans of UCSD led an initiative dedicated to starting and developing a new subfield of sociological research: the sociology of religion and science. The re-granting initiative provided funding for new scholarship and researchers working to examine how identities and beliefs are related to science and religion.

Funding support: 

The Sociology of Science and Religion. Identity and Belief Formation
Ecklund, Elaine Howard, PI, (John H. Evans, Co-PI), Templeton Religion Trust administered through The Issachar Fund ($2,900,000).

The Science and Religion of the Human Body

From 2020 to 2023, Elaine and Andrea Henderson of the University of South Carolina directed a study examining the ways race and gender shape how people understand the relationship between science, religion, and care for their bodies, as well as how they balance advancements in science and medicine with religious ethics. They investigated how religious and non-religious individuals, medical professionals, and faith leaders understand the boundaries between religion and science in four key areas: beginning of life and fertility technologies, mental health and illness, aging, and conceptions of death and dying. They also analyzed how people from different racial and socio-economic backgrounds view the relationships among science, religion, and the body at different points in the life course.

Funding support:

Where Science Ends and Religion Begins: The Human Body
Ecklund, Elaine Howard, PI, (Andrea K. Henderson, Co-PI), Templeton Religion Trust administered through The Issachar Fund ($200,000).

Real Change

The Reaching Evangelical American Leaders to Change Hearts and Minds (REAL CHANGE) study was conducted from 2017 through 2020. Elaine interviewed evangelical Christian thought leaders and Christian scientists to understand the common values between scientific and faith communities and how these Christians integrate faith and science to answer questions about purpose and meaning. 

Learn more: 

Why Science and Faith Need Each Other: Eight Shared Values That Move Us Beyond Fear, Brazos Press, 2020.

Funding support: 

Reaching Evangelical American Leaders to Change Hearts and Minds (REAL CHANGE)
Ecklund, Elaine Howard, PI, Templeton Religion Trust ($216,155, Grant #TRT0191). 

Religion, Inequality, and Science Education

From 2015 to 2016, Elaine and her colleagues conducted the Religion, Inequality, and Science Education (RISE) study to examine how racial representation in science and medicine might impact support for science and trust in medicine. They interviewed members of largely Korean, Black, and Hispanic congregations and participated in these congregations to understand how congregants use their faith to approach medicine and science. They found that minority Christians who are well-represented in medicine, like Korean Americans, view the relationship between faith and health differently from those who are less represented in medicine, like black and Latin Americans.

Learn more: 

Bolger, D., Tinsley, C., & Ecklund, E.H. (2018). Heaven and Health: How Black, Latino, and Korean Christians View the Relationship between Faith and Health, Review of Religious Research, 60(3), 389-402.

Funding support: 

Religion, Inequality, and Science Education (RISE)
Ecklund, Elaine Howard, PI, Faculty Initiatives Fund, Rice University ($38,000).

Religious Understandings of Science 

The Religious Understandings of Science (RUS) project was conducted between 2012 and 2016 and illuminates the diverse and nuanced ways in which Americans view the relationship between religion and science. The study involved more than 300 interviews with individuals from a variety of religious traditions (including evangelicals, Catholics, mainline Protestants, Jews, and Muslims), observations of religious services in Houston and Chicago, and a general population survey of more than 10,000 Americans. 

Learn more: 

Religion vs. Science: What Religious People Really Think, Oxford University Press, 2017.

Funding support: 

Religious Understandings of Science (RUS)
Ecklund, Elaine Howard, PI, John Templeton Foundation ($1,087,000, Grant #38817). 

Religion Among Scientists in International Context 

From 2011 to 2015, the Religion Among Scientists in International Context (RASIC) research initiative involved an eight-country study aimed at understanding how scientists view the social context of science. Through the analysis of survey and interview data collected in France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the study explores scientists’ perspectives on professional ethics, science policy, religion, and the role of family and gender in the scientific enterprise. Across the study nations, Elaine and her colleagues surveyed over 20,000 scientists at all career stages—from graduate students to full professors and senior scientists—and conducted in-depth interviews with more than 600 scientists. 

Learn more: 

Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion, Oxford University Press, 2019.

Varieties of Atheism in Science, Oxford University Press, 2021.

Funding support: 

Religion among Scientists in International Context (RASIC)
Ecklund, Elaine Howard, PI, (Kirstin R.W. Matthews, Steven Lewis, Co-PIs), Templeton World Charity Foundation ($2,057,000, Grant #TWCF0033/AB14). 

Religion Among Academic Scientists

From 2005 to 2009, Elaine interviewed more than 1,600 nature and social scientists at 21 research universities, and then interviewed 275 of them in depth, to examine their approach to religion and spirituality. The research found surprising and varied religious beliefs among scientists, and based on her analysis from this study, Elaine concluded that most of what we believe about the faith lives of scientists is wrong: Many scientists actively seek sources of spirituality to further explore the purpose of their lives.

Learn more: 

Science vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think, Oxford University Press, 2010

Funding support: 

Religion and Spirituality among Natural and Social Scientists at Elite Research Universities
Ecklund, Elaine Howard, PI, The John Templeton Foundation ($283,549).

Gender and Science

The Influences on Science Careers study, which Elaine conducted with Anne Lincoln of Southern Methodist University, looks at which factors influence the decision to go into science as a career. The study illuminates the persistent gender disparity among academic scientists by investigating the perceptions men and women have about the educational experiences that factored into their decision to pursue an academic science career. The research included an online survey of male and female scientists in the top 20 graduate programs in physics and biology, including graduate students, postdocs, and professors, as well as life history interviews with a sample of the scientists. Elaine regularly consults and speaks on how we can increase gender representation in academic science. 

Learn more: 

Chan, Esther, Di Di, and Elaine Howard Ecklund (2024). Scientists Explain the Underrepresentation of Women in Physics Compared to Biology in Four National Contexts, Gender, Work & Organization, 31(2):399-418.  

Failing Families, Failing Science: Work-Family Conflict in Academic Science, New York University Press, 2016

Funding support: 

Perceptions of Women in Academic Science
Ecklund, Elaine Howard, PI, (Anne E. Lincoln, Southern Methodist University, Co-PI), National Science Foundation ($299,334, Grant #GSE0920837).

Perceptions of Women in Academic Science
Ecklund, Elaine Howard, PI, (Anne E. Lincoln, Southern Methodist University, Co-PI), National Science Foundation ($55,154, Grant #GSE0920837), additional competitive grant in support of existing research.