Abstract
Scientific Illiteracy and the Partisan Takeover of Biology
Highlights
Americans have long been ambivalent about science
What sets Americans apart is that their reservations center primarily around religion
As the United States struggles to maintain its undisputed position as world leader in science and technology, religious ideology has spilled over into the public sphere to a degree unmatched in other industrialized societies
Summary
Americans have long been ambivalent about science. Conflicting attitudes toward science are not uncommon among industrialized countries— Canadians, Europeans, and Japanese, for example, appreciate the benefits of science but worry about potential impacts on society. Since 1979, the proportion of scientifically literate adults has doubled—to a paltry 17% Miller has devoted his 30-year career to studying public understanding of science and technology and its implications for a healthy democracy. Over the year leading up to the 2004 US election, Miller polled a national panel of adults to track their grasp of the ongoing debate about stem-cell research. The first national survey of American scientific literacy was serendipitously completed two months prior to the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, providing a baseline measure of public attitudes toward science just before the space race. When Miller tried to replicate the survey 20 years later, it was clear that questions based on topical headlines couldn’t produce accurate measures of scientific literacy over time. “If you don’t know what DNA is, you can’t follow the stem-cell debate.”
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