Prone to wellness? Dispositional awe, religion/spirituality, and well-being among academic scientists.

Recent scholarship has identified a growing mental health crisis among scientists and those in academia more generally. This study draws from nationally representative survey data collected from physicists and biologists working in four countries-the United Kingdom, the United States, India, and Italy (N = 3442)-and examines how religion/spirituality relates to their physical and mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential mediating role of dispositional awe, which involves transcendent experience. In the current age, science and religion are generally perceived to be in conflict, but recent evidence suggests they might be more complementary than was previously thought, especially in that they both evoke aesthetic experiences.

Beauty in experiment: A qualitative analysis of aesthetic experiences in scientific practice.

A growing literature in philosophy of science focuses on the role of aesthetics in scientific practice, with the experiment recently recognized for its aesthetic value. However, the literature on aesthetics in experimentation grows out of case studies from the history of science, leaving open the question as to how contemporary scientists experience aesthetics in their experimental work. In this paper we offer the first qualitative, empirical analysis of aesthetic experiences regarding experimental practice, drawing from in-depth interviews with 215 scientists in four countries.

Individual differences in scientists' aesthetic disposition, aesthetic experiences, and aesthetic sensitivity in scientific work.

Introduction: The role of personality in shaping engagement with aesthetics in science has been almost entirely unexplored. Whereas artists and arts settings (e.g.

Beauty in biology: An empirical assessment.

'Beauty' is not a word typically associated with science. Nevertheless, numerous scientists in recent years have expounded on the role of beauty in science. These writings tend to be largely concentrated in theoretical physics.

Faith Leaders' Views on Collaboration with Mental Health Professionals.

When faced with experiences of mental struggle, Americans often turn to faith leaders as their first recourse. Although studies have explored religious leaders' mental health literacy, few studies have investigated how religious leaders believe faith communities and mental health professionals should collaborate. The data gathered for this research is from in-depth and focus group interviews with faith leaders from Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and Sikh communities in South Texas and the Mid-Atlantic region between 2017-2019 (n=67).

Is it the Sermon or the Choir? Pastoral Support, Congregant Support, and Worshiper Mental Health.

Background: Although religious involvement tends to be associated with improved mental health, additional work is needed to identify the specific aspects of religious practice that are associated with positive mental health outcomes. Our study advances the literature by investigating how two unique forms of religious social support are associated with mental health.

Purpose: We explore whether support received in religious settings from fellow congregants or religious leaders is associated with participants' mental health.

Aesthetic experiences and flourishing in science: A four-country study.

In response to the mental health crisis in science, and amid concerns about the detrimental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists, this study seeks to identify the role of a heretofore under-researched factor for flourishing and eudaimonia: aesthetic experiences in scientific work. The main research question that this study addresses is: To what extent is the frequency of encountering aesthetics in terms of beauty, awe, and wonder in scientific work associated with greater well-being among scientists? Based on a large-scale ( = 3,061) and representative international survey of scientists (biologists and physicists) in four countries (India, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States), this study employs sets of nested regressions to model the associations of aesthetic experiences with flourishing while controlling for demographic factors and negative workplace and life circumstances such as burnout, job/publication pressure, mistreatment, COVID-19 impacts, other stressful life events, serious psychological distress, and chronic health conditions. The results show that the frequency of aesthetic experiences in scientific work in the disciplines of biology and physics has a very large and statistically significant association with flourishing and eudaimonia that remains robust even when controlling for demographic factors and negative workplace and life circumstances, including COVID-19 impacts.

Coping with an Evil World: Contextualizing the Stress-Buffering Role of Scripture Reading.

This research note advances the religious coping literature by testing whether belief in an evil world conditions the stress-moderating role of scripture reading. Hypotheses are tested with original data from a survey of Black, Hispanic, and White American churchgoers from South Texas (2017-2018; n = 1,115). Our findings show that reading scripture for insights into the future attenuates the positive association between major life events and psychological distress, but only for congregants who do not believe the world is fundamentally evil and sinful.

Associations of Changes in Religiosity With Flourishing During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of Faith Communities in the United States.

This study explored the extent to which perceived changes in religiosity from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic are associated with flourishing. Participants from a diverse set of faith communities in two United States metropolitan regions ( = 1,480) completed an online survey between October and December 2020. The survey included items capturing perceived changes in four dimensions of religiosity (i.

Racial differences in anticipated COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among religious populations in the US.

Given high COVID-19 infection and mortality ratesamong racial minorities in the US and their higher rates of religiosity, it is important to examine how the intersection of race and religion influences perceptions of COVID-19 vaccinations.Data for this study come from online surveys conducted in twelve congregations between October and December 2020 (N = 1,609). Based on logistic regression analyses, this study demonstrates a severe disparity of 24 percentage points (95% confidence interval 0.

International scientific collaborative activities and barriers to them in eight societies.

Scientific research increasingly requires international collaboration among scientists. Less is known, however, about the barriers that impede such collaboration. In this pioneering study, more than 9000 scientists from eight societies - the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Italy, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Turkey, and France - were surveyed to gauge scientists' attitudes and experiences.