Religiosity, attitudes toward science, and public health: Evidence from Finland

Ioannis Laliotis, Evangelos Mourelatos and Joona Lohtander

Economics & Human Biology, 2025, vol. 56, issue C

Abstract: We explore how religiosity influences perceptions and the adoption of protective health behaviours, as reflected in COVID-19 infection and vaccination rates. In the first part of our analysis, we use Finnish data from four nationally representative surveys, we find that individuals with higher self-reported religiosity and those from more conservative religious groups tend to hold less favourable attitudes towards science, technology and medicine, compared to non-religious individuals. In the second part, we observe that municipalities with higher shares of conservative religious groups experienced greater COVID-19 spread and lower vaccination rates, with these trends persisting throughout the pandemic. Our findings underscore the importance of accounting for religiosity when crafting public health policies, as it may contribute to the existence of non-compliance hotspots.

Keywords: Religion; Religiosity; COVID-19; Finland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H12 I10 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:56:y:2025:i:c:s1570677x24001126

DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2024.101460

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