Predicting Public Trust in Science: The Role of Basic Orientations Toward Science, Perceived Trustworthiness of Scientists, and Experiences With Science

Scientists (and science as a whole) provide evidence and advice for societal problem solving collective decision-making. For this to be heard, the public must willing trust science, where “trust” means that one can confidently expect reliable knowledge evidence, even if one’s understanding of is bounded. According sociological psychological literature, citizens’ basic attitudes toward, experiences with, perceived trustworthiness trustee serve antecedents trust. From this, we developed model public’s in tested nationally representative survey Switzerland ( N = 1,050). The analysis reveals was best predicted by positivistic toward β 0.33) lesser extent assessments scientists 0.24). Experiences with did not predict 0.07). These results suggest stable its role society are grounds on which built.