GoKawiilPeople are more likely to trust scientists when scientists trust the public and are open about uncertainties.Credit: Isabel Infantes/AFP/Getty
Niels Mede is curious about how the public views science. Last month, two different Uber drivers told the science-communication researcher that they thought trust in science was low in their countries.
Have people stopped trusting science? The data tell a surprising story
This came as no surprise to Mede, who is based at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands. He has seen the idea that there is a crisis of public trust in science in headlines, book titles and conference agendas (and he co-led a major study on the subject1). It has gained traction from populist rhetoric that frames scientists as part of an out-of-touch and suspect elite. Distrust of science is being used by the US administration as one justification for attacking the scientific enterprise.
Trust in science is important. Scientific knowledge cannot influence decisions and improve lives unless citizens and policymakers consider it trustworthy. Confidence that scientists and the scientific process produce reliable, valuable knowledge is also necessary to maintain support for public funding of research. That’s why Nature this week includes a series of articles on trust in science. Along with an extended collection online (see go.nature.com/4xwut6h), it identifies the problems and looks at how scientists can maintain the trust of the public and policymakers.
How FAIR data are helping to build trust in science
The idea that science is experiencing a trust crisis is simplistic shorthand for more complex problems. As laid out in a Feature, the data do not bear out the idea of a global crisis. Surveys consistently show that the scientific profession is trusted — much more than most. An overview of relevant research published in June by biomedical funder Wellcome in London and public-policy think tank RAND Europe in Cambridge, UK, shows that trust in science and scientists is middling to high, not in a state of collapse (see go.nature.com/4euiees). A 2024 survey of more than 23,000 people across 32 countries, by London-based market-research firm Ipsos, showed that 56% of respondents trusted scientists (see go.nature.com/4egifnn). Only medical doctors (58%) were trusted more; politicians (15%) and advertising executives (19%) languished at the base of the chart.
But levels of, and trends in, confidence in science and scientists vary by country, and are falling in some groups. In some places, trust is polarized along political lines. In the United States, it is dropping in people who identify as Republican or Republican-leaning but not in Democrats. This trend emerged around 20 years ago but accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is part of a wider loss of public trust in institutions including the media, companies and political bodies.
Scientists should recognize their own political biases to build public trust
One underlying problem is that academics, including scientists, are sometimes viewed as elite and disconnected from most people — an idea amplified by some populist groups2. A survey of people living in Britain, published in April by Wellcome and political think tank More in Common in London, highlights these divides (see go.nature.com/4vqskh3). It shows that scientists are more left-wing than the general public; furthermore, 29% of respondents say that “scientists think themselves better than other people”.
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