Pew: Partisan gap widening

web

Pew Research Center·pewresearch.org/science/2022/02/15/americans-trust-in-sci...

Credibility Rating

4/5

High(4)

High quality. Established institution or organization with editorial oversight and accountability.

Rating inherited from publication venue: Pew Research Center

Relevant background for AI governance discussions, as declining trust in scientific institutions complicates public acceptance of AI safety research findings and expert-driven regulatory proposals.

Metadata

Importance: 35/100organizational reportdataset

Summary

A Pew Research Center survey documenting declining public trust in scientists, medical professionals, and other institutions in the United States, with a pronounced and widening partisan gap between Republicans and Democrats. The report highlights how trust erosion varies significantly by political affiliation, education, and demographic group, with implications for science-based policymaking and public health.

Key Points

•Trust in scientists dropped notably between 2020 and 2021, reversing gains seen at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
•A large and growing partisan gap exists: Democrats retain higher trust in scientists while Republican trust has declined sharply.
•Trust in medical scientists, the military, and public school principals all showed declines across the measured period.
•The erosion of institutional trust has downstream effects on public receptivity to evidence-based guidance and AI/tech governance.
•Demographic factors like education and party identity are strong predictors of differential trust levels across institutions.

Cited by 1 page

Page	Type	Quality
AI-Driven Trust Decline	Risk	55.0

Cached Content Preview

HTTP 200Fetched Apr 9, 202615 KB

Americans’ Trust in Scientists, Other Groups Declines in 2021 | Pew Research Center 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 Search 
 
 

 
 Read Our Research On:

 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 Report 
 

 |

 February 15, 2022 
 
 
 

 Americans’ Trust in Scientists, Other Groups Declines

 Republicans’ confidence in medical scientists down sharply since early in the coronavirus outbreak

 
 X 

 Facebook 

 Threads 

 LinkedIn 

 WhatsApp 

 

 Mail 

 Add Us On Google 

 By Brian Kennedy , Alec Tyson and Cary Funk 

 
 Table of Contents 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 Americans’ Trust in Scientists, Other Groups Declines 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 Acknowledgments 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 Methodology 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 Appendix 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 

 How we did this 

 Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand how much confidence Americans have in groups and institutions in society, including scientists and medical scientists. We surveyed 14,497 U.S. adults from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12, 2021.

 The survey was conducted on Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP) and included an oversample of Black and Hispanic adults from the Ipsos KnowledgePanel. A total of 3,042 Black adults (single-race, not Hispanic) and 3,716 Hispanic adults were sampled.

 Respondents on both panels are recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

 Here are the questions used for this report , along with responses, and its methodology .

 This is made possible by The Pew Charitable Trusts, which received support from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF, an advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

 

 Americans’ confidence in groups and institutions has turned downward compared with just a year ago. Trust in scientists and medical scientists, once seemingly buoyed by their central role in addressing the coronavirus outbreak, is now below pre-pandemic levels.

 

 Overall, 29% of U.S. adults say they have a great deal of confidence in medical scientists to act in the best interests of the public, down from 40% who said this in November 2020. Similarly, the share with a great deal of confidence in scientists to act in the public’s best interests is down by 10 percentage points (from 39% to 29%), according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

 The new findings represent a shift in the recent trajectory of attitudes toward medical scientists and scientists. Public confidence in both groups had increased shortly after the start of the coronavirus outbreak, according to an April 20

... (truncated, 15 KB total)

Resource ID: d3b07eea2e75cc28 | Stable ID: sid_8asOgFJ9mH