{"id":1208,"date":"2016-12-12T10:27:24","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T16:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=1208"},"modified":"2016-12-12T10:27:24","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T16:27:24","slug":"who-distrusts-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2016\/12\/12\/who-distrusts-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Who (Dis)Trusts Science?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1211\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1211\" style=\"width: 580px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/kingway-school\/5876407905\/in\/photolist-9Xh8kF-aWZ5G8-9AV8XN-djaDX1-o6f7yW-aWYT72-6zVcHt-8uoEQT-aWZ6Ja-aWYEQv-aWYNZr-e4rvge-5FNsQF-4xYzsZ-aWZ4pn-aWYR8P-aWYV9n-aWYVZa-hDQycW-aWZ2bD-3bgN9-aWZ7Cc-6zZirh-pJDBRh-6zVbiR-4EiTEB-8CAjHC-5FNshZ-aWYPYH-8iUPm7-nLJ5gy-bPe7qi-hDQ58P-hDRVXA-5JHhjp-6JyDHc-dyurmR-79SQJK-5FSJcm-hDTNJ2-aWZ3jv-6zVcr8-hDS9vy-e6Dhyd-njxuaf-5m45rt-hDSAPU-aWYX48-hDQvPi-6n9V7Y\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1211\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/files\/2016\/12\/5876407905_5805869ddc_z.jpg\" alt=\"Photo by The Kingsway School, Flickr CC\" width=\"580\" height=\"385\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/files\/2016\/12\/5876407905_5805869ddc_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/files\/2016\/12\/5876407905_5805869ddc_z-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/files\/2016\/12\/5876407905_5805869ddc_z-600x398.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1211\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by The Kingsway School, Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From climate change to stem cell research, public discourse in the United States is highly divided about the legitimacy and authority of science. Depending on your views, it\u2019s easy to dismiss the other side as uninformed or uneducated, but sociologists know that views about science are more complicated than that.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite common misconceptions that climate change skepticism is linked to education, trust in science has only a small correlation with educational attainment or scientific literacy. <\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.essex.ac.uk\/sociology\/staff\/profile.aspx?id=120\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nick Allum<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/demography\/about\/staff\/ps1r07.page\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Patrick Sturgis<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Dimitra Tabourazi, and <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.surrey.ac.uk\/sociology\/people\/ian_bruntonsmith\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ian Brunton-Smith<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. 2008. \u201c<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/pus.sagepub.com\/content\/17\/1\/35.abstract\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Science Knowledge and Attitudes across Cultures: A Meta-Analysis<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Public Understanding of Science<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> 17: 35\u201354.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rather, distrust of science is closely linked to political and religious affiliations. Conservatives have the lowest level of trust in science; this holds true even among highly educated conservatives. As for religious folks, studies find that it is not necessarily that religious people completely distrust the scientific method, but rather <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">they reject science\u2019s influence on issues they see as a moral concern.<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/sociology\/people\/gauchat-gordon\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gordon Gauchat<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. 2012. \u201c<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/asr.sagepub.com\/content\/77\/2\/167.abstract\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Politicization of Science in the Public Sphere: A Study of Public Trust in the United States, 1974 to 2010.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">American Sociological Review <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">77(2): 167-187.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/pages.ucsd.edu\/~jhevans\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">John Evans<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. 2011. \u201c<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/j.1468-5906.2011.01603.x\/abstract\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Epistemological and Moral Conflict Between Religion and Science<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">50(4): 707-727.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, research cautions against thinking about trust in science as simply a\u00a0liberal versus conservative binary. A recent study offers a more complicated analysis, arguing that a third perspective defies this binary. This group, labeled &#8220;postseculars,&#8221; have more complicated views &#8212; they often trust science in certain domains, but distrust it in others, reflecting a much more complicated picture of how cleavages in social, political, and economic attitudes influence public opinion of scientific authority. <\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shirinoy.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shiri Noy<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timothyloudenobrien.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Timothy L. O\u2019Brien<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. 2016. \u201c<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/srd.sagepub.com\/content\/2\/2378023116651876.abstract\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Nation Divided: Science, Religion, and Public Opinion in the United States.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Socius <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2:1-15. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From climate change to stem cell research, public discourse in the United States is highly divided about the legitimacy and authority of science. Depending on your views, it\u2019s easy to dismiss the other side as uninformed or uneducated, but sociologists know that views about science are more complicated than that. Despite common misconceptions that climate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1957,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,85],"tags":[38543,38546,42223,42,42222],"class_list":["post-1208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-politics","tag-culture","tag-politics","tag-postsecular","tag-religion","tag-trust-in-science"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1957"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1208"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1214,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions\/1214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}