Mapping variety in public understanding of science

Abstract

We analyse around 15 000 responses from 11 countries to the open survey question `please tell me in your own words, what does it mean to study something scientifically' in order to show cultural diversity in public representations of science. In past studies this question has been coded on a five-point rating scale that is used to rank scientific literacy across different countries. We develop, apply and evaluate an alternative coding frame. We show that our coding is more adequate, more reliable and produces less noise than the frame used by others to analyse responses to the same question. Multiple coding on five dimensions allows us to characterize people's understanding of science in terms of methods, institutions, effects, examples and level of differentiation of the response. We use correspondence analysis to characterize distinct response patterns in ten European countries and the USA. The data shows that no simple cultural division such as Protestant versus Catholic, or north-south divide, or Latin versus Anglo-Saxon fits the variance in the data. The paper closes with an agenda for future research in the area of public understanding of science and technology.