Polling shows a wide divergence between scientists’ understanding of the world around them and how the public sees things. It is a troubling finding, made all the more so by the fractured nature of modern media.
Surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center showed that in eight of 13 issues related to science, there were 20-percentage-point or greater differences between the opinions expressed by the public and those of scientists. Pew polled 2,002 adult members of the public and 3,748 members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
For example, 88 percent of scientists say genetically modified foods are safe to eat, as opposed to only 37 percent of the public. Sixty-eight percent of scientists say food grown with pesticides is safe; 28 percent of the public agrees. The percentage of scientists who understand that humans evolved over time is 98. Among the public that figure only is 65 percent.
As the director of Pew’s Internet, science and technology research said, “These are big and notable gaps.” And in a democracy, they also are more than a little bit concerning.
One example of why that is worrisome has been in the news recently. In the Pew polls, 86 percent of the scientists supported mandatory vaccinations. But in what can be described only as ignorance, only 68 percent of the public did. The results of that gap can be seen in the resurgence of measles – a disease that had been all but eradicated in this country.
Scientists also are less worried about nuclear power, more certain that climate change is caused by human activity and more convinced of the danger of overpopulation. All of those examples are not just abstract scientific debates but the subjects of real public policy questions.
What the Pew surveys did not find was any correlation to political positions. The scientists were sometimes more liberal than the public, sometimes more conservative.
The polling did find that 84 percent of the scientists agreed that “the public does not know very much about science.” Fully 97 percent criticized the educational system, and three-fourths said it is a major problem that not enough science and math being taught.
But the problem is not that people do not know the periodic table or understand calculus. What is missing from too much of the public is an understanding of the scientific method and basic reasoning. And with a phenomenal amount of information now literally at our fingertips, that poses a real danger.
Without some understanding of scientific thinking there is no way to filter dispassionately the vast amount of information surrounding us. Instead it gets filtered through every individual’s prejudice, fears and ideology. What was said by a friend’s cousin, a talking head on a favorite cable channel or what was posted online all take on whatever weight our pleasure assigns them.
For those who do not understand rudimentary scientific thinking, impossible things can seem real and the improbable likely. Public policy questions become inseparable from politics, and we end up having endless debates over situations that can and should be accurately analyzed. The thoroughly debunked notion that vaccines cause autism only is one example.
It has been said that we all are entitled to our own opinion but not our own facts. But without the scientific method – and with the Internet on every phone – we can have our own facts. And increasingly we do.
What that means for the future of our democracy is another question.
