Public Attitudes and Understanding of Science

The National Science Foundation has produced a report of American Attitudes and Understanding of Science and Technology (large PDF download).

A few of the highlights from the document include

80% of Americans are interested in “new scientific discoveries”

In general, American interest in science and technology is higher than in Europe.

Online newspapers seem to be the highest source for S&T information.

Americans answered 5.8 out of 0 fact-based questions correctly, comparable to Europe and more than most other countries.

Sadly, more than half of Americans are including astrology in science and technology.

Americans still tend to recognize the benefits of science and most think research spending by the government is about right or too little.

Science and medical communities are only beaten by military as groups that people have a “great deal of confidence” in.

Engineers are more understood than scientists and few people think that they have a good understanding of what scientists do.

Americans tend not to understand what science is, thinking that farming, programming and firefighting are scientific.

A majority of Americans are worried about climate change.

Americans are more supportive of nuclear power than people in other countries.

Americans are less concerned about genetic modification of crops than most other countries.

One very interesting thing of note was that the survey included an experiment.

The survey showed that, when people were asked about “human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals”, 48% agreed. But when the survey put the phrase “according to the the theory of evolution” in front if the “human beings” phrase, 72% agreed with it.

Similarly, when the statement was “the universe began with a huge explosion”, 39% of respondents agreed. But when prefaced by “according to astronomers”, 60% of respondents agreed.

It seems to me that Americans know what scientists say, and in spite of the general agreement with, don’t agree about the Big Bang and evolution details.

That makes sense to me. Americans are, in general, deeply religious and those two things directly contradict their chosen religion. Yet, they (we) continue to use our cell phones and internet and pesticides and plastics, all developed through science.

One thing that stood out to me was how many Americans use their daily newspapers as their chief source of science and technology information. Now without reading this giant document yet (and maybe not even then), I’m not sure what is being used in the phrase “science and technology”. Obviously, Americans think that astrology is science and many probably include herbal remedies, homeopathy, feng shui, and paranormal studies as ‘science’. In terms of technology, that’s really up in the air. Many people probably think that the Apple v Samsung lawsuits are technology.

Like so many things, interpretation is very important. Different surveys may have different definitions as well, increasing the error bars in this metasurvey.

For example, The Tyndall Report shows the annual number of minutes of coverage on leading nightly news stories. In the Science, space, and technology area the leading story (68 minutes) was “Computer CEO Steve Jobs of Apple dies at age 56”. To me, that’s not really technology. I would almost consider that ‘celebrity’ news.

As usual, the more education a person has, the more likely they are to respond correctly to science fact-based questions. But, in general, the trend is barely upwards in knowledge over the last few years. In 1992, the average was 5.4 answer correct, in 2012, it is 5.8 answers correct.

Table 7-8 on page 23 has the questions.

After reading the questions, I’m almost depressed. Yes, Americans average 5.8 right out of 10. But here’s the list of questions (all true/false or two choice). Percentages are the percent of US respondents getting the question correct.

The center of the Earth is very hot. 84% The continents have been moving to their location for millions of years and will continue to move. 83% Does the Earth go around Sun or does the Sun go around the Earth? 74% All radioactivity is man-made. 72% Electrons are smaller than atoms. 53% Lasers work by focusing sound waves. 47% The universe began with a huge explosion. 39% It is the father’s gene that decides whether the baby is a boy or girl. 63% Antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria. 51% Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals. 48%

So one person out of 4 thinks that the Earth is the center of the universe. Almost half the people cannot correctly describe an atom. And half the people don’t know basic medical information. I’ll note that in almost every case, the US did better than China, the EU, India, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, and South Korea.

This is pretty disturbing.

I think the inference to draw here is pretty important. We have to do a better job of getting science information to the public. And one of the best areas to do this in is newspapers, especially online newspapers.

There’s a lot more information in that document. Please check it out.

UPDATE:

A blogger recently made this post, which I encourage everyone to read. It points out (as does Ramiro in the comments here) that there are some significant issues with the questions asked of the people.

This is, in my industry, called a bivariance issue. Basically, the really low performers got it wrong AND the really high performers got it wrong. Ramiro gives a good example of why a high performing person (read as: really smart) would get the question wrong. Someone else pointed out that the Earth and Sun revolve around a common point based that is not actually the sun.

So, there are some issues with the surveys.

I’ll just point out though, that if a big chunk of the US population doesn’t know the difference between astronomy and astrology, then that doesn’t make the problem any better.