Scientific ethics is often framed around three major concerns: falsification, fabrication, and plagiarism. But scientists' ethical responsibilities extend well beyond how they collect, analyze, and report data. A new study by Boniuk Institute researchers Josia Taru and Elaine Howard Ecklund examines how religion and spirituality shape scientists' thinking about their broader professional responsibilities.
Published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, the study draws on interviews with biologists in Mexico, South Africa, and the United States. Participants affirmed the importance of traditional research and identified falsification, fabrication, and plagiarism as important ethical issues, particularly amid pressures to publish and advance professionally. However, when asked about religion and spirituality, they described a much wider ethical landscape, one encompassing teaching, mentoring, collegial relationships, care for students, and science's responsibility to humanity.
For some scientists, current religious beliefs provided a framework for honest, compassion, service and respect. Others continued to draw on values formed through religious upbringings even though they no longer identified as religious. Participants also described religion, philosophy, and the humanities as potential partners in evaluating emerging technologies, setting boundaries for responsible research, and helping science remain attentive to human needs.
The findings suggest that productive engagement between scientists, scholars of religion, and religious leaders can strengthen ethical reflection, particularly as developments such as artificial intelligence and gene editing raise questions that scientific expertise alone cannot answer.