Trends in U.S. public confidence in science and opportunities for progress

Abstract

In recent years, many questions have been raised about whether public confidence in science is changing. To clarify recent trends in the public's confidence and factors that are associated with these feelings, an effort initiated by the National Academies' Strategic Council for Research Excellence, Integrity, and Trust (the Strategic Council) analyzed findings from multiple survey research organizations. The Strategic Council's effort, which began in 2022, found that U.S. public confidence in science, the scientific community, and leaders of scientific communities is high relative to other civic, cultural, and governmental institutions for which researchers regularly collect such data. However, confidence in these institutions has fallen during the previous 5 years. Science's decline, while real, is similar to or less than that in the other groups. A recent study goes into greater detail by exploring public views of science. From these data, we observe that many of the surveyed U.S. public question the extent to which scientists share their values or overcome personal biases when presenting conclusions. At the same time, large majorities agree on certain types of actions that they want scientists to take. For example, 84% respond that it is "somewhat important" or "very important" for scientists to disclose their funders. Ninety-two percent (92%) offer the same responses to scientists "being open to changing their minds based on new evidence." Collectively, these data clarify how the U.S. public views science and scientists. They also suggest actions that can affect public confidence in science and scientists in the years to come.

Fig. 1.

Recent U.S. trends in public confidence in scientists, medical scientists, and other institutions (2).

Fig. 2.

Overall public confidence in the scientific community in the United States (7). Image credit: Ciera Hammond.

Fig. 3.

Correspondence between the U.S. adult population’s trust in health authorities and intention to vaccinate. Survey data were collected in different waves from July, August/September, September/October, October/November, November, and December of 2020, and January/February of 2021. The left-hand gray region is the September/October 2020 wave and the right-hand gray region is the January/February 2021 wave (10).