New York — Trust in the scientific community among US adults plummeted in 2022, a major poll shows, driven by a partisan divide in views of both science and medicine that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Overall, 39% of US adults said they had “a lot of trust” in the scientific community, down from 48% in 2018 and 2021. This is according to the General Social Survey, a long-running survey conducted by NORC at the university. of Chicago which has monitored American opinion on major topics since 1972.
An additional 48% of adults in the latest poll reported “only some” confidence, while 13% reported “hardly any,” according to an analysis of the survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Jennifer Benz, the center’s deputy director, said the poll showed a low confidence level among Republicans that has emerged in the face of the pandemic.
“It doesn’t seem so dramatic when you look at the overall public trends,” Benz said. “But when you dig down to people’s political affiliation, there’s really degradation and polarization.”
Between the 2018 and 2021 surveys, as the pandemic took hold, the trust levels of the major parties moved in opposite directions. Democrats reported increased levels of trust in science in 2021 — perhaps as a “rallying effect” around things like COVID-19 vaccines and prevention measures, Benz said. At the same time, Republicans saw their confidence begin to decline.
In the 2022 survey, Democrats’ confidence returned to pre-pandemic levels, with 53% reporting much higher confidence, compared to 55% in 2018. 2018. Trust in medicine has also become more polarized since 2018. That year, Democrats and Republicans were equally likely to say they had high confidence. By 2022, however, Republicans’ confidence had dropped to 26%, while Democrats’ confidence remains roughly the same as it was before the pandemic, at 42%.
Overall, 34% of Americans reported a lot of trust in medicine in 2022, compared to 39% before the pandemic.
In general, the US has had higher levels of trust in scientists than other groups, said John Beasley, who studies public opinion about science at Michigan State University. And even with the latest decline, trust in science is still higher than in many other institutions, he pointed out.
But the division among political parties is a cause for concern, experts said.
“You can definitely see the effect here of people taking cues from their political leaders,” Benz said.
For Sudip Parikh, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the drops were “disappointing but not surprising”. He sees them as part of an “overall alienation of our communities” and a loss of faith in many institutions.
The latest poll found mistrust has grown for some other groups as well. According to the 2022 survey, trust in the Supreme Court has hit its lowest level in at least 50 years. Americans also reported lower levels of trust in education, the press, major companies, and organized religion.
Beasley said that scientists should communicate their objectives to help show that they are trustworthy: “Not only do we have some expertise, but we want to use that expertise to try to improve the world.” are doing for too,” he said.
Parikh thinks the stakes are high for rebuilding trust in science — and doing so across political lines.
“Science should be bipartisan,” he said. “The causes of Alzheimer’s are the same whether you are a Republican or a Democrat. That rendezvous in the sun is the same whether you live in Topeka or you live in San Francisco.”
The General Social Survey has been conducted since 1972 by NORC at the University of Chicago. The sample size for each year’s survey varies from about 1,500 to about 4,000 adults, with a margin of error between plus or minus 2 percentage points and plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. The most recent survey was conducted from May 5, 2022, to December 20, 2022, and includes interviews with 3,544 American adults. The results for the entire sample have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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The Associated Press Department of Health and Science is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. AP is solely responsible for all content.
