Ashley Yeager on trustworthiness of scientists
"[S]cientists now rank slightly ahead of military leaders and well above religious heads, journalists, and business executives when it comes to trust."
Journalist Ashley Yeager, writing for The Scientist, has summarized the results of a recent Pew survey showing some modestly good news about the reputation of scientists. 4,464 randomly-chosen Americans were asked their views; 86 percent reported that they trust scientists at least “a fair amount,” which is a boost from the last time this survey was run, in 2016, when the result was 76 percent. The study did uncover some very interesting differences in responses based on political affiliation and race of respondents, and also showed that context matters: trustworthiness may be relevant for expert advice but not extend to issues of policy, for example. Still, it's encouraging that from a PR perspective, scientists aren't doing too badly.