Journal article
Trust in scientists and their role in society across 68 countries
- Abstract:
- Science is crucial for evidence-based decision-making. Public trust in scientists can help decision makers act on the basis of the best available evidence, especially during crises. However, in recent years the epistemic authority of science has been challenged, causing concerns about low public trust in scientists. We interrogated these concerns with a preregistered 68-country survey of 71,922 respondents and found that in most countries, most people trust scientists and agree that scientists should engage more in society and policymaking. We found variations between and within countries, which we explain with individual- and country-level variables, including political orientation. While there is no widespread lack of trust in scientists, we cannot discount the concern that lack of trust in scientists by even a small minority may affect considerations of scientific evidence in policymaking. These findings have implications for scientists and policymakers seeking to maintain and increase trust in scientists.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 5.9MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1038/s41562-024-02090-5
Authors
+ John Templeton Foundation
More from this funder
- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/035tnyy05
- Funding agency for:
- Levy, N
- Grant:
- 62631
+ Australian Research Council
More from this funder
- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/05mmh0f86
- Funding agency for:
- Levy, N
- Grant:
- DP180102384
- Publisher:
- Springer Nature
- Journal:
- Nature Human Behaviour More from this journal
- Volume:
- 9
- Issue:
- 4
- Pages:
- 713–730
- Place of publication:
- England
- Publication date:
- 2025-01-20
- Acceptance date:
- 2024-11-19
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
2397-3374
- ISSN:
-
2397-3374
- Pmid:
-
39833424
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
2080086
- Local pid:
-
pubs:2080086
- Deposit date:
-
2025-01-30
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Cologna et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2025
- Rights statement:
- © The Author(s) 2025. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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