Stereotypic Images of the Scientist : The Draw - A - Scientist Test *

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries visual and verbal images of the scientist were many and varied. Caricaturists, cartoonists, artists, and writers produced a diverse range of stereotypic figures: diabolical madmen, distinguished professors, harmless eccentrics, learned buffoons, and fashionable dilettantes. Naturalists in the field among flora and fauna were often pictured, as were physical scientists in their laboratories surrounded by vials and beakers. Cartoonists frequently portrayed scientists in controversy: disputing among themselves or in conflict with religious authority (Sherwood, 1970). And, of course, for centuries alchemy and black magic were invoked by caricaturists to lampoon the profession of chemistry. With a few exceptions, these images are now seldom seen. As science has transformed its organizational structure, improved its general social status, and firmly established its social authority, a new professional image has emerged in the popular media. This image, apparently more in keeping with the institutional goals and procedures of modern science, differs in significant ways from earlier stereotypes. The naturalist has been almost entirely displaced by the laboratory scientist. Reference to alchemy and sorcery has all but disappeared. Controversy rarely reaches the public arena, though in recent years this element has begun to reappear especially in connection with environmental issues. In short, the image has been “cleaned up” and, in a sense, standardized.