A big global survey has revealed people want scientists to be more involved in the policy-making process of most governments.
The survey, of nearly 72,000 people in 68 countries, has found that most people have a high trust in science.
The study, which is published today in Nature Human Behaviour, found no evidence for a widespread lack of trust in science.
“Counter to narratives of a ‘crisis of trust’ in science, our findings reveal most people worldwide have relatively high trust in scientists and want them to be more involved in society and policymaking,” says co-author Dr Mathew Marques, a senior lecturer at Macquarie University.
Australians were the 5th most trusting in science in the world, after Egypt, India, Nigeria and Kenya.
The team of 241 researchers ran an online survey of 71,922 people from 2022-2023. The survey was a questionnaire asking respondents to rate how much they agreed with various statements, such as “Scientists should be more involved in the policymaking process”.
The researchers also collected information on demographics, education, political orientation and religiosity.
Associate Professor Fabien Medvecky, from the Australian National University, who wasn’t involved in the research, says it’s “probably the broadest and most robust work [he’s] seen that addresses the issue of trust in science, and especially trust in scientists across the globe”.
The study found that no country had low levels of trust in science.
“More interesting is that many of the stories we hear about leads to (dis)trust are challenged when we take a broader, more robust look,” says Medvecky.
There were variations within and between countries on scientific trust.
Political orientation affected trust in some countries, but the effect differed from place to place. North American and Western European countries showed a link between conservatism and lack of trust in science, while some Eastern European, Southeast Asian and African countries, saw a link between right-leaning politics and trust in science. (The researchers assessed both conservative-liberal, and right-left, political orientations separately.)
“The attitudes of political leadership rather than peoples’ political orientation may better explain politically correlated attitudes towards scientists,” write the researchers in their paper.
“Unlike North America and many Western European countries, in Australia having a conservative versus liberal political orientation was not associated with trust,” says Marques.
“This could mean political polarisation around science is not as much of an issue as it is for specific scientific issues, like climate change.”
Overall, there was a positive link between religiosity and science: that is, people with strong religious beliefs were more likely to have a higher trust in science.
This relationship also varied between countries. The researchers found a strong link between trust and religiosity in Muslim-majority countries like Türkiye, Bangladesh, and Malaysia, while the relationship was varied and sometimes negative in Christian-majority countries.
The researchers found only a small positive link between tertiary education and trust in science, with most countries showing no link at all.
“Too often we see a headline that says the community does not trust science. This comprehensive study provides clear evidence that this is not the case globally but especially in Australia where we rank 5th in the world for trust in scientists,” says Dr Cathy Foley, former Chief Scientist of Australia, who wasn’t involved with the research.
“This does not surprise me as my experience of the Australian science and research sector is overwhelmingly one of high integrity and passion to see science undertaken for the betterment of society.
“But while there is trust in scientists, there is an expectation that we communicate our work more broadly in dialogue with the community and that scientists be involved in policy development.”
Foley also points out that the study didn’t look at specific disciplines of science, which can receive different levels of trust.
The researchers stress that “even a small minority” of people who don’t trust science can affect how scientific evidence is treated in policymaking.
“While viewed as highly competent, with moderate integrity and benevolent intentions, there is a perception that scientists are less open to feedback,” says Marques.
“We recommend scientists take these results seriously. They should find ways to be more receptive to feedback and open to dialogue with the public.”
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