30 January 2015

How the American public views science


As reported in the StarTribune:
The American public and U.S. scientists are light-years apart on science issues. And 98 percent of surveyed scientists say it's a problem that we don't know what they're talking about...

In eight of 13 science-oriented issues, there was a 20-percentage-point or higher gap separating the opinions of the public and members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, according to survey work by the Pew Research Center. The gaps didn't correlate to any liberal-conservative split; the scientists at times take more traditionally conservative views and at times more liberal.

"These are big and notable gaps," said Lee Rainie, director of Pew's internet, science and technology research. He said they are "pretty powerful indicators of the public and the scientific community seeing the world differently."

In the most dramatic split, 88 percent of the scientists surveyed said it is safe to eat genetically modified foods, while only 37 percent of the public say it is safe and 57 percent say it is unsafe. And 68 percent of scientists said it is safe to eat foods grown with pesticides, compared with only 28 percent of the general public.

Ninety-eight percent of scientists say humans evolved over time, compared with 65 percent of the public. The gap wasn't quite as large for vaccines, with 86 percent of the scientists favoring mandatory childhood shots while 68 percent of the public did.
More discussion at the link. 

For a detailed analysis (and lots of charts), go to the Pew Research Center.

12 comments:

  1. I found the gap for genetically modified food a little troublesome because it confuses the distinction between whether a GM food is "safe" to eat versus whether it's "safe" to unleash GMO's into the broader environment. The two groups might be answering two different questions.

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    1. I don't think so. It doesn't surprise me to hear that 5 out of every 8 people in the general public are concerned about eating GM food.

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  2. I find the pesticides question odd. I hope it was asked quite clearly. In general, there is no issue with pestacides. Specifically, however, some are not exactly harmless if consumed regularly.

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    1. DDT is one or the most effective pesticides ever, and prevented millions from dying of mosquito borne diseases. Thank you, Rachel Carson for your reactionary idiocy.

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  3. The sampling of scientists is a bit troubling. Only 18% of AAAS members surveyed responded, and of those we don't know how many are actual scientists and how many are just members of AAAS. No information on specialties or expertise either. Just "scientists". Seems a bit shoddy on Pew's part.

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  4. What really bothers me is people talking about "believing" in global warming, etc. Science is not a religion, it is based on demonstrable, repeatable facts. It's not something to "believe" in.

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    1. +1

      I try to avoid the term 'believing' when talking about science. I try to use 'being convinced'.

      What happens when using the word 'belief' is that religious people working to ridicule science purposely conflate the two meanings of the word 'believe'. You can believe in god, as in a religious experience, and you can believe science, as in that you are convinced by the facts.

      However, problems arrive when people 'believe' in science as a religious experience (Hello scientology) and when people believe in god as a fact-based matter.

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    2. Thank you. In the other part of the world, the part that is outside the U.S.A., a lot of people view the people that live inside the U.S.A. as gun toting, god believing, racist weirdos.
      Obviously a fair few of us 'outsiders' can, and do, think outside that box and realise that one should not pigeon hole a country's entire population based on right wing owned daily 'newspapers' (ours, not yours) the flotsam that is known as tv programs, and especially said tv's news shows.
      However, a tarred figure will bear traces for a long, long time, so it is partially cleansing to read such words regarding religion, as you write.
      I do, of course, presume you to be from the good ol' U.S.A.

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  5. I'm concerned about the 2% of AAAS members that DON'T think humans have evolved over time

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    1. Fruit flies haven't evolved over time either...

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    2. Yes they have. It's a simple matter of statistics. You can not keep copying millions and millions of base-pairs of DNA and RNA millions and millions of times for millions and millions cells for generations without making mistakes. Most of those mistakes are insignificant and hence are ignored. Others cause disease, such as cancer. And very sometimes, they lead to an improvement. That's evolution.

      It's really not that hard.

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    3. That must be true, because fruit flies get into my shut up house and then into my shut up pantry. Reverse Houdini with wings. They will rule the world one day.

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