Predicting Public Trust in Science: The Role of Basic Orientations Toward Science, Perceived Trustworthiness of Scientists, and Experiences With Science

Florian Wintterlin,Julia Metag,Niels G Mede,Mike S Schäfer,Friederike Hendriks,Rainer Bromme

doi:10.3389/fcomm.2021.822757

Florian Wintterlin, Julia Metag + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.822757

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Abstract

Scientists (and science as a whole) provide evidence and advice for societal problem solving and collective decision-making. For this advice to be heard, the public must be willing to trust science, where “trust” means that one can confidently expect science to provide reliable knowledge and evidence, even if one’s understanding of science is bounded. According to the sociological and psychological literature, citizens’ basic attitudes toward, experiences with, and perceived trustworthiness of the trustee serve as antecedents of trust. From this, we developed a model for the public’s trust in science, and we tested this model in a nationally representative survey in Switzerland (N = 1,050). The analysis reveals that trust in science was best predicted by positivistic attitudes toward science (β = 0.33) and to a lesser extent by trustworthiness assessments of scientists (β = 0.24). Experiences with science did not predict trust in science (β = 0.07). These results suggest that stable basic attitudes toward science and its role in society are grounds on which trust in science can be built.

Highlights

While today’s societies largely rest on innovations and technologies that have been developed through scientific advances, they face new and threatening challenges such as climate change and pandemics
The importance of trust in science for societal well-being became evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, as studies showed that acceptance of protective measures depended on trust in science (Dohle, Wingen, and Schreiber 2020; Battiston, Kashyap, and Rotondi 2021)
Both of these basic orientations toward science can be perceived as rather persistent dispositions acquired throughout socialization and education and may represent “a relatively stable tendency among citizens” (Brossard and Nisbet 2007, 30), similar to pro-technology cultural orientations (Kahan et al, 2009), deference to the cultural authority of science (Gauchat 2011), technocratic attitudes (Bertsou and Pastorella 2017), or political populist attitudes (Pruysers 2021). Both positivistic and science-related populist attitudes can be understood as latent drivers of more volatile and adaptable views of science, such as those that we examine in this study, i.e., judgments of scientists’ epistemic trustworthiness

Summary

Introduction

While today’s societies largely rest on innovations and technologies that have been developed through scientific advances, they face new and threatening challenges such as climate change and pandemics. For such issues to be understood and potentially solved, societies must rely on and trust scientific knowledge, alongside social, economic, and political knowledge. Trust in science and scientists is required for the functioning of modern democracies. Due to the division of labor in our societies, we must rely on scientists’ knowledge when using science-based technologies and making personal or civic decisions

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