Survey Shows Americans’ Trust in Scientists Growing, Though Political Splits Persist

A survey of 4,464 American adults released last week by the Pew Research Center reveals the public’s generally high regard for scientists has increased markedly over the last three years. It underscores, though, that such perceptions are complex and can vary considerably with political affiliation, race, and level of scientific knowledge.

According to the survey, the number of Americans reporting a “great deal or fair amount of confidence” in scientists has grown from 76% in 2016 to 86% now, surpassing the military as the profession garnering the most confidence. Over this period, the number reporting a “great deal” of confidence grew 14 percentage points to 35%. By comparison, 36% reported having a great deal of confidence in the military, similar to the 2016 level, while only 4% had a great deal of confidence in elected officials, which was the lowest confidence level the survey recorded.

Breaking out the results by political affiliation, the survey reports 43% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning respondents had a great deal of confidence in scientists, compared with 27% of Republican and Republican-leaning respondents — a gap that has persisted since the 2016 survey. The latest survey also charts political rifts in attitudes toward the objectivity of scientists, which are particularly pronounced for the specific case of environmental science.

Political affiliation colors perceptions

Pew’s survey reports that 60% of respondents support scientists taking an “active role” in policy debates, while the remainder say scientists should “focus on establishing sound scientific facts.” However, there is again a pronounced political split on the matter, with 73% of Democrats supporting active engagement compared with 43% of Republicans.

There are also notable differences in trust that scientists are unbiased in their research. While 62% of Democratic respondents said scientists’ conclusions are based “solely on facts,” 55% of Republicans said scientists’ judgments are “just as likely to be biased as other people’s.” Examining the influence of respondents’ own level of scientific knowledge on their perceptions of scientific bias, the survey found that Democrats with “high science knowledge” had considerably greater confidence in the scientific method. Meanwhile, Republicans with high science knowledge had a greater tendency to view scientists as susceptible to bias than those with lower science knowledge.

The survey also found a split in attitude toward whether federal funding makes scientific findings more or less trustworthy. Among respondents identifying as conservative Republicans, 41% said government funding decreases their trust, compared with 21% of liberal Democrats, whereas 34% of the latter group said federal funding increases their trust. Citing a previous Pew study , the report notes this finding is “in keeping with political divides over support for federal spending on scientific research and an array of other government policy and spending priorities.”

Integrity concerns cut across fields

The survey also assessed how views of scientists’ credibility vary across the fields of medicine, nutrition, and environmental science. In general, the survey found that respondents tended to trust researchers in these fields less than “science practitioners,” defined as individuals who “directly provide treatments and recommendations to the public.” Across all fields, respondents had low confidence that both researchers and practitioners are transparent about conflicts of interest or are willing to take responsibility for mistakes.

Trust in the work of environmental scientists varied considerably based on political affiliation, in contrast to the other fields. About half of Democratic respondents indicated they believe environmental scientists “provide fair and accurate information” all or most of the time, compared with about one-fifth of Republicans. The survey report notes that past Pew studies have documented related divides between the parties on environmental topics, including climate science.

The survey also examined racial differences in attitudes toward the prevalence of professional misconduct. Hispanic and black American respondents viewed misconduct as a greater problem across all the research and practitioner types than did white respondents.

Exploring means of increasing public trust in science, the survey reports, “Open public access to data and independent committee reviews inspire the most confidence in scientists and boost their trust in research findings.” About half of respondents said they would trust research findings more if they are reviewed by an independent committee or if the underlying data are publicly available.