Does knowing the science make you feel more positively about it?

A new analysis of global attitudes to science and public health suggests that the more knowledgeable people are about science, the more positive they are about it.

22 February 2024
3 min read
by Priya Joi
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<article> <h1> <span>Does knowing the science make you feel more positively about it?</span> </h1> <div><p>A new analysis of global attitudes to science and public health suggests that the more knowledgeable people are about science, the more positive they are about it.</p></div> <ul> <li> <b>22 February 2024</b> </li> <li> <b class="me-2">by</b> <span> <a href="https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/authors/priya-joi" hreflang="en">Priya Joi</a> </span> </li> </ul> <div> <div> <div> <div> <div> <p> </p><p>The COVID-19 pandemic made clear that negative attitudes to science and public health can emerge in vaccine refusal or hesitancy, which can have far-reaching impacts on health.</p><p>Substantial research exists to show that the more knowledgeable people are about science, the more positively they tend to feel about this. But this has been a matter of debate among experts in public engagement with science. </p><p>Some instances of people refusing to comply with public health measures may be due to misinformation, which often circulated on social media during the pandemic, or lack of scientific knowledge.</p><blockquote><h2>The results show a positive knowledge-attitude correlation in all but one of the 144 countries investigated – the exception was Morocco</h2></blockquote><p>In other situations, however, communities whose trust has been broken by authorities or by health organisations are understandably cautious of new health interventions. Their refusal to engage with public health measures may not necessarily be due to a lack of information but a lack of trust in the authorities.</p><p>Moreover, the evidence base for the link between scientific understanding and a positive attitude to science has been almost exclusively confined to high and middle-income countries and has excluded lower-income countries. In a new study, researchers undertook the first global investigation of the science knowledge-attitude relationship, using the 2018 Wellcome Global Monitor survey. Their findings are published in <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0296860">PloS ONE</a>.</p><p>The Wellcome survey included 149,000 respondents across 144 countries. The researchers say that the questionnaire was designed in such a way that it enabled them "to estimate this correlation for two different measures of science knowledge commonly used in the existing literature: one which taps 'science literacy' and another which uses respondents' self-assessments of their understanding of science."</p><div><h4>Have you read?</h4><ul><li><a href="https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/knowledge-power-how-community-education-boosting-vaccination-uptake-rural-zimbabwe" hreflang="en">“Knowledge is power”: How community education is boosting vaccination uptake in rural Zimbabwe</a></li><li><a href="https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/why-some-people-dont-trust-science-and-how-change-their-minds" hreflang="en">Why some people don’t trust science – and how to change their minds</a></li><li><a href="https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/rejecting-science-has-long-history-pandemic-showed-what-happens" hreflang="en">Rejecting science has a long history – the pandemic showed what happens when you ignore this</a></li></ul></div><p>Science literacy was tested through three questions, one of which was, "A vaccine is given to people to strengthen their body's ability to fight certain diseases. Sometimes people are given a vaccine as an injection, but vaccines can also be given by mouth or some other way. Before today, had you ever heard of a vaccine?" Respondents were asked to answer "yes" or "no".</p><p>Attitudes to science were assessed through questions including: "In general, do you think the work that scientists do benefits people like you in this country?", to which people answered "yes" or "no". <br><br>The results show a positive knowledge-attitude correlation in all but one of the 144 countries investigated – the exception was Morocco (although, as this was a retrospective analysis of a survey, it's not clear why this was so).</p><p>While the researchers agree that it is too paternalistic to suggest that we could "simply educate science scepticism away", they argue that since it's clear that the connection between literacy and attitudes is clearly not just a Western phenomenon, it warrants further investigation to understand how we can improve negative attitudes to science.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <p> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/does-knowing-science-make-you-feel-more-positively-about-it">Original article</a> </p><p>This article was originally published on <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork">VaccinesWork</a> </p><script>(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start': new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src= 'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f); })(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-M7H54VD');</script><noscript><iframe src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-M7H54VD" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript></article>

The more knowledgeable people are about science, the more positively they tend to feel about it. Credit: Gabriella Clare Marino on Unsplash

The COVID-19 pandemic made clear that negative attitudes to science and public health can emerge in vaccine refusal or hesitancy, which can have far-reaching impacts on health.

Substantial research exists to show that the more knowledgeable people are about science, the more positively they tend to feel about this. But this has been a matter of debate among experts in public engagement with science.

Some instances of people refusing to comply with public health measures may be due to misinformation, which often circulated on social media during the pandemic, or lack of scientific knowledge.

The results show a positive knowledge-attitude correlation in all but one of the 144 countries investigated – the exception was Morocco

In other situations, however, communities whose trust has been broken by authorities or by health organisations are understandably cautious of new health interventions. Their refusal to engage with public health measures may not necessarily be due to a lack of information but a lack of trust in the authorities.

Moreover, the evidence base for the link between scientific understanding and a positive attitude to science has been almost exclusively confined to high and middle-income countries and has excluded lower-income countries. In a new study, researchers undertook the first global investigation of the science knowledge-attitude relationship, using the 2018 Wellcome Global Monitor survey. Their findings are published in PloS ONE.

The Wellcome survey included 149,000 respondents across 144 countries. The researchers say that the questionnaire was designed in such a way that it enabled them "to estimate this correlation for two different measures of science knowledge commonly used in the existing literature: one which taps 'science literacy' and another which uses respondents' self-assessments of their understanding of science."

Have you read?

Science literacy was tested through three questions, one of which was, "A vaccine is given to people to strengthen their body's ability to fight certain diseases. Sometimes people are given a vaccine as an injection, but vaccines can also be given by mouth or some other way. Before today, had you ever heard of a vaccine?" Respondents were asked to answer "yes" or "no".

Attitudes to science were assessed through questions including: "In general, do you think the work that scientists do benefits people like you in this country?", to which people answered "yes" or "no".

The results show a positive knowledge-attitude correlation in all but one of the 144 countries investigated – the exception was Morocco (although, as this was a retrospective analysis of a survey, it's not clear why this was so).

While the researchers agree that it is too paternalistic to suggest that we could "simply educate science scepticism away", they argue that since it's clear that the connection between literacy and attitudes is clearly not just a Western phenomenon, it warrants further investigation to understand how we can improve negative attitudes to science.