How People Decide to Trust in Science
By Larry Au, Christian Capotecu, Gil Eyal, Sophie Sharp
Surveys purporting to document increasing mistrust in research are oversimplifying complex phenomena.
This Article From Issue
January-February 2024
Volume 112, Number 1
Page 38
In September 2021, the National Academies’ Committee on Science, Technology, and Law convened a panel that asked the question: “Is there public mistrust of science?” Panelists, including one of us (Eyal), were asked to respond to the sense among pundits, commentators, and many scientists that a large swath of the public is skeptical, if not downright dismissive, of scientific findings on issues ranging from vaccination to masks to climate change.
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- National surveys in the United States say confidence in science is declining. But these surveys are premised on multiple unexamined assumptions about science and trust.
- People who question science-based regulatory thresholds are not necessarily being unreasonable and do not demonstrate increasing mistrust in researchers overall.
- By studying people’s decisions and behaviors that indicate trust in a particular research area, the authors highlight ways to build the trust scientific institutions seek.
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