Public mistrust stems from science’s ties to economic and political interests
The number of citizens paying deference to science and accepting scientific results outright as ‘truth’ is decreasing. Public attention to scientific fraud and misconduct in the past years may have boosted a critical perspective on science. But the questioning of scientific authority is more deeply rooted and long-term. It is widely assumed that scientists often take controversial positions and that these positions may be biased by scientists’ self-interests. Or that they are tainted by their anticipation of political, economic or ecological interests. Therefore, public trust is no longer afforded to scientists and scientific organisations uncritically.
However, public opinion surveys regularly show that trust in science is much greater than trust in politics and economy. That has been the case, in the past decade, with the various Eurobarometers studies, including surveys on responsible research and innovation, biotechnology and risk issues, for example. The main difference between the perception of science, politics and economics is not in line with their ascribed competence, as one might expect. Particularly, given that the key societal function of science is to provide socially-relevant and valid knowledge. Instead, the main difference in public perception is pertaining to their orientation towards the common good.
There is thus an apparent contradiction between wide-spread scepticism of scientists as public experts and positive evaluation of science as a field. This calls for a clear distinction between general trust in scientific institutions and context-specific trust in scientific actors in concrete situations. It is likely that both levels of trust are interrelated.
Download a free PDF version of the article and spread it!Indeed, general trust or distrust will serve as a starting point to reflect on trust in specific actors in specific contexts. By contrast, trust assigned or declined in specific contexts will over time inform general trust ratings. But still, general trust in science institutions and situation-specific trust in concrete scientific actors result from different forms of reasoning.
Truth versus power
People view the scientific ideal of seeking the truth. The relatively high-level of general trust in science is probably inspired by such perception. The logic of science—aimed at discovering the ‘truth’— is perceived to be particularly compatible with the common good. In contrast, the logics of politics and capitalistic economy—aimed at gaining ‘power’ and ‘profit’ – are perceived as being less compatible with the common good.
They imply social competition between actors, creating losers and winners. This is because the distribution of power and profit is a zero-sum game; the distribution of knowledge is not. Power and profit are thus seen as being related to partial interests – of companies, labour unions or political parties, for example – rather than to the common good.
Public self-presentations of science focusing on the competitive character of research may therefore erode an essential basis of public trust in science: the conviction that science serves the common good. So does the public perception of science’s outcomes, especially when it reveals close interdependencies with economy and politics
Shifting science reputation
Public opinion surveys regularly show that trust in scientists varies with their affiliation. Trust is higher for scientists in academia than for scientists in industry. This has been shown, for example, in Swedish data from the VA Barometer 2014/2015. Media users who read articles or see films that refer to scientific experts or scientific knowledge often express critical thoughts. These thoughts often illustrate the negative connotation in people’s mind of collaborations between science and industry when it comes to fostering trust in scientific expertise.
The obvious conclusion is that science should maintain more distance to economy and politics. However, it is not a realistic solution of the trust problem. This is because the societal merits of science largely depend on the use of scientific knowledge in economy and policy-making. And making knowledge effective in these fields requires close interactions of science with them. Maintaining distance to these fields would perhaps avoid problems with trust. But it would also decrease social relevance and utility of science – leading to another potential image problem. The necessary interdependencies with economy and politics hence result in unavoidable trust problems.