Have people stopped trusting science? The data tell a surprising story
Skip to main content
Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain<br>the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in<br>Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles<br>and JavaScript.
Advertisement
Have people stopped trusting science? The data tell a surprising story
Download PDF
Bluesky
Illustration: Nik Spencer/Nature. Adapted from image by Accogliente Design/Shutterstock
You have full access to this article via your institution.
Download PDF
From the United States to Europe to Brazil, there is a pervasive sense that trust in science has collapsed.<br>The complex truth about trust in science
A UK survey1 published in January found that only 40% of people think that science information they hear is “generally true”. Another global poll showed that 70% of people believe at least one false or unproven claim, such as that the risks of childhood vaccines outweigh the benefits2.<br>In the United States, President Donald Trump and his administration are using the idea that science is not trustworthy as one reason to cut research budgets, reject evidence-based medical advice and exert unprecedented political control over research. “Over the last 5 years, confidence that scientists act in the best interests of the public has fallen significantly,” said Trump in an executive order last year.<br>Even the Vatican is voicing concern. This September, a meeting at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences will examine how “the crisis of trust in science has become a pressing issue”.<br>But is trust in science really that weak? Researchers studying this have reached some surprising conclusions. From a global perspective, public trust in science and scientists is high, they say. One of the largest studies3, which surveyed nearly 72,000 people across 68 countries in 2022–23, reported a “moderately high” average trust score of 3.6 out of 5. “The idea that there’s a generalized, pervasive lack of trust in science and experts is just completely unfounded in my mind,” says David Bersoff, head of research at the Edelman Trust Institute, a think tank in New York City.<br>Six ways to put the public at the heart of science and policy
But trust has dropped in certain groups, notably among Republican-leaning people in the United States. And research in the United Kingdom shows that the proportion of people who have “a lot” of trust in science tends to be lower among politically right-leaning groups than those on the left. “Trust in science is politicized and becoming more so,” says sociologist Gordon Gauchat at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. In many countries, people are also increasingly questioning definitive evidence on divisive issues such as vaccines, partly because scientific information is being drowned out online.<br>Researchers say this is a problem because it undermines support for urgent policies — such as ones that tackle climate change — and because it can lead to personal decisions that harm health, such as shunning vaccines or medical treatments. “When science rejection leads to loss of life, that’s concerning,” says Natalia Zarzeczna, who studies people’s beliefs at the University of Essex in Colchester, UK.<br>Pandemic problems<br>Concerns about trust in science have simmered for years, but they exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic, when misinformation flourished and vocal groups questioned recommendations — such as vaccination and face masks — that research suggested could save lives.<br>How FAIR data are helping to build trust in science
In June 2022, as the pandemic waned, researchers Niels Mede and Viktoria Cologna put a call out on Twitter (now known as X) for people interested in surveying trust in science. Their tweets blew up — and before long they had a team of about 240 people, an international project called TISP (Trust in Science and Science-Related Populism) and the 68-country survey. “It got quite some attention,” says Mede, who is now at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands and co-led the study with Cologna, now at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology in Dübendorf.<br>The online survey asked 12 questions about scientists’ competence, integrity, openness and benevolence, which are different dimensions of trust. This aimed to address criticism that surveys about trust in science in general are simplistic, because ‘trust’ and ‘science’ are broad terms. The team combined the results into a scale of trustworthiness, from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high). The 3.6 global average largely fits with earlier global surveys suggesting that trust in science is high (see ‘Solid support for science’).<br>Source: Ref. 3.<br>The TISP analysis showed some regional variation. Trust was relatively high in some African...