Party Polarization and Trust in Science: What about Democrats?

Research has documented the decline of trust in science among Republicans, ideological conservatives, and fundamentalist religious groups. However, less is known about nature party polarization these trends: did only increase because changes Republicans? In this study, author tests a two-sided thesis using data from General Social Survey (1974–2018). The findings show that significant share growth due to an Democrats. fact, by 2010s, Democrats became significantly more likely than either Republicans or independents have high confidence science. Moreover, results also aggregate party-level are driven largely trends conservative moderate Democrats, liberal Together, implications for our understanding potential causes partisan beliefs cultural authority