Trust in scientists and their role in society across 68 countries

241 authors, including, Viktoria Cologna*, Guanxiong Huang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

131 Citations (Scopus)
4 Downloads (CityUHK Scholars)

Abstract

Science is crucial for evidence-based decision-making. Public trust in scientists can help decision makers act on the basis of the best available evidence, especially during crises. However, in recent years the epistemic authority of science has been challenged, causing concerns about low public trust in scientists. We interrogated these concerns with a preregistered 68-country survey of 71,922 respondents and found that in most countries, most people trust scientists and agree that scientists should engage more in society and policymaking. We found variations between and within countries, which we explain with individual- and country-level variables, including political orientation. While there is no widespread lack of trust in scientists, we cannot discount the concern that lack of trust in scientists by even a small minority may affect considerations of scientific evidence in policymaking. These findings have implications for scientists and policymakers seeking to maintain and increase trust in scientists. © The Author(s) 2025.
Original languageEnglish
Article numbere2108576118
JournalNature Human Behaviour
Online published20 Jan 2025
DOIs
Publication statusOnline published - 20 Jan 2025

Funding

We thank D. Lombardi (University of Zurich) for managing the author list and author contributions and P. Licari (Technite) for valuable methodological advice. The following funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript: Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoc Mobility Fellowship (P500PS_202935) (V.C.); Harvard University Faculty Development Funds (V.C.); Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SI/502093–01) (S.B.); University of Zurich/IMKZ (M.S.S.); the HELTS Foundation (E.W.M.); School of Psychology, University of Sheffield (I.A. and H.G.); Beasiswa Pendidikan Indonesia Kemendikbudristek—LPDP provided by Balai Pembiayaan Pendidikan Tinggi (BPPT) Kemdikbudristek and LPDP Indonesia (I.A.); Department of Economics, University of Warwick (E.A.); John Templeton Foundation grant no. 61378 (M. Alfano); Australian Research Council grant no. DP190101507 (M. Alfano); Resnick Sustainability Institute (R.M.A.); Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Kalijaga (D.A.); University ‘Aleksandër Moisiu’, Durrës (A. Bajrami and R.T.); Africa Albarado Fund (R. Bardhan); Cambridge Africa (R. Bardhan); ESRC GCRF (R. Bardhan); SNSF (VAR-EXP) (E.B., P.K. and A.Z.); German Research Foundation grant no. BE 3970/12-1 (C. Betsch); Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (A.Y.B.); SWPS University (O. Białobrzeska and M. Parzuchowski); University of Warsaw (M.B. and P.H.); Harvey Mudd College (K. Breeden); Boston University (Startup Funds) (T.C. and M.M.); Jagiellonian University (G.C. and E. Szumowska); Quadrature Climate Fund (R.D. and E. Shuckburgh); Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant no. OPP1144 (R.D.); EDCTP2 Programme (TMA2020CDF-3171) (I.M.A.); Cambridge Humanities Research Grant (R.D.); CRASSH grant fund for climaTRACES lab (R.D.); Keynes Fund (R.D.); UKRI ODA International Partnership Fund (R.D. and R. Bardhan); COVID-19 Rapid Response grant from the University of Vienna (K.C.D., C.L., J.P.N., E.P. and B.T.); OptimAgent (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, funding code 031L0299D) and University of Lübeck (A.C.V. and L. Kojan); Austrian Science Fund grant FWF, I3381 (K.C.D., C.L., J.P.N. and E.P.); the Austrian Science Fund FWF: W1262-B29 (C.L. and B.T.); Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft grant no. RE 4752/1-1 (C.D. and F.G.R.); David and Claudia Harding Foundation (C.D. and F.G.R.); Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University) (D.D., A.G., D.G. and E.K.); University of Lodz (M.D. and I. Warwas); Australian Research Council grant no. FT190100708 (U.K.H.E.); School of Economics Interdisciplinary funding at University of Birmingham (M.E.); Kieskompas.nl (T.W.E. and A. Krouwel); USAID (M. Facciani and T.W.); Aarhus University Research Foundation grant no. AUFF-E-2019-9-13 (A.F.-B. and S. Fuglsang); Carleton College (C. Farhart); internal project costs IWM (H.F.); Australian Research Council grant no. DP190101675 (O. Ghasemi); Government of Alberta Major Innovation Fund grant no. RES0049213 (E.G.); Conacyt grant no. A1S9013 (C.G.-B. and A.C.H.-M.); Simone Rödder (L.G.); Hixon Center for Climate and the Environment, Harvey Mudd College (L.N.H.); Faculty Research Grant of City University of Hong Kong grant no. PJ9618021 (G.H.); research grant from the College of Social Sciences, Kimep University (N.I. and Z.K.); Hitachi Fund Support for Research Related to Infectious Diseases (M.I. and M. Tanaka); JST-RISTEX ELSI grant no. JPMJRX20J3 (M.I. and M. Tanaka); School of Geography, Planning, and Spatial Sciences, University of Tasmania (C.A.J. and C.H.L.); Centre for Marine Socioecology, University of Tasmania (C.A.J. and C.H.L.); University of Bamberg (S.J. and S.M.); Nicolaus Copernicus University (D.J. and A.D.W.); Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism, Charles University (T.K.R. and K. Poliaková); the John Templeton Foundation, grant no. 61580 (M.A.P.); Zhangir Kabdulkair (H.K. and B. Scoggins); Concerted Research Action grant from the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (Belgium) (‘The Socio-Cognitive Impact of Literacy’) (O.K.); Center for Climate and Energy Transformation, University of Bergen, Norway (H.H. and S. Kristiansen); University of Turku (A. Koivula and P.R.); Victoria University of Wellington (L.S.K.); NORFACE Joint Research Programme on Democratic Governance in a Turbulent Age (T.K., K. Petkanopoulou and J.v.N.); NWO (T.K., K. Petkanopoulou and J.v.N.); European Commission through Horizon 2020 grant no. 822166 (T.K., K. Petkanopoulou and J.v.N.); Australian Research Council grant no. DP180102384 (N.L. and R.M.R.); John Templeton Foundation grant no. 62631 (N.L., R.M.R. and M. Alfano); internal research/creative project grant (N.M.L.); Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant no. 430-2022-00711 (N.M.L.); School of Psychology and Public Health Internal Grant Scheme 2022 (M.D.M.); ‘An Evolutionary and Cultural Perspective on Intellectual Humility via Intellectual Curiosity and Epistemic Deference’ from the John Templeton Foundation (H.M.); SCALUP grant from the ANR grant no. ANR-21-CE28-0016-01 (H.M.); ANR grants to PSL and the DEC ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02, and ANR-17-EURE-0017 (H.M.); University of Delaware (J.M.); School of Medicine and Psychology, Australian National University (E.J.N. and S.K.S.); university research budget (T. Ostermann and J.R.P.); Trinity Western University (J.P.-H.); Swedish Research Council grant no. 2020-02584 (P.P.); University of Silesia in Katowice (M.P.-C. and K.P.-B.); John Templeton Foundation Academic Cross Training Fellowship grant no. 61580; University of Warsaw under the Priority Research Area V of the ‘Excellence Initiative—Research University’ programme (A.P. and E.Z.-P.); National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan (ROC) grant nos 111-2628-H-002-003- and 112-2628-H-002-002- (A.R.); the São Paulo Research Foundation—FAPESP grant no. 2019/26665-5 (G.R.); Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)—458303980 (F.G.R. and C.D.); Aston University (J.P. Reynolds); ANR PICS (I.R.); Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, UIDB/04295/2020 and UIDP/04295/2020 (O. Santos and R.R.S.); European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme grant no. 964728 (JITSUVAX) (P.S.); Université Officielle de Bukavu (J.S.N.); ETH Zurich (J.S.); Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation grant no. 7F09521 (L.S. and J.S.); NOMIS Foundation (M. Tsakiris); NOMIS Foundation (R.M.); School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne (I. Walker); Observatory for Research on Media and Journalism, University of Louvain (G.L. and O. Standaert); European Research Council Advanced Grant ‘Consequences of conspiracy theories—CONSPIRACY_FX’ grant no. 101018262 (K.M.D.); Universität Hamburg (S. Schulreich); Genome Canada and Genome Alberta, Canada, LSARP Project Integrating Genomic Approaches to Improve Dairy Cattle Resilience: A Comprehensive Goal to Enhance Canadian Dairy Industry Sustainability (E.G.); Alberta Ministry of Technology and Innovation Canada, Major Innovation Fund Project AMR—One Health Consortium (E.G.); Aarhus University Research Foundation grant no. AUFF-E-2019-9-4 (P.M.); University of Hamburg (S.R., L.G. and M.J.); Resnick Sustainability Institute, Critical Zone Initiative, California Institute of Technology (R.M.A.); UK Research and Innovation under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee EP/X042758/1 (J.P. Reynolds); Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) (C.R.S., C.D.-C. and P.C.-Á.); CNPq—INCT (National Institute of Science and Technology on Social and Affective Neuroscience, grant no. 406463/2022-0) (G.R. and F.A.); Swiss National Science Foundation PRIMA Grant (no. PR00P1_193128) (J.L.G.); Economic and Social Research Council, UK (grant reference no. ES/X000702/1) (S.M.); and Leverhulme International Professorship Grant (no. LIP-2022-001) (R.M.); Slovak Research and Development Agency (APVV), grant no. APVV-22-0242 (O. Buchel).

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