A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found conservatives’ trust in science has declined dramatically since the 1970s.
A conservative flight from science is disheartening, but it’s not surprising given the shifting role of science in society and the conflict between conservative views and scientific positions.
The study, published in the journal American Sociological Review, was based on results from the General Social Survey, a 40-year study of citizens’ attitudes toward political and social institutions such as science, Congress or the media.
Conservatives in the ’70s took a similar stance to liberals or moderates, with 48 percent of conservatives saying they had a “great deal of trust in science.” Today, only 35 percent of self-identified conservatives are willing to make that statement, losing nearly a third of those who trusted science 40 years earlier.
In the ’70s, science was associated with matters of national security, like nuclear weapons and the space race. Since then the image of science has morphed from ICBMs and NASA to ivory towers and the EPA.
Science has also moved onto religion’s turf, attempting to explain our origins and the nature of the human mind and morality.
Gordon Gauchat, author of the UNC paper, thinks the decline in trust is due in large part to the conservative perception of being an embattled minority — a perception encouraged by sources like Fox News and political think tanks.
The truth is conservatives outnumber liberals in the U.S. by about two to one, with 40 percent of the population identifying as conservative, 35 percent as moderate and only 21 percent as liberal. Conservatism is actually on the rise, up from 37 percent in 2008.
However, media outlets like Fox News portray themselves and other conservatives as an oppressed minority fighting against the “elite” in the media and academia.
Portraying science as the opposition is unfortunately easy since the scientific consensus on issues like global warming and evolution comes into direct conflict with deeply held conservative beliefs. But that’s only because the evidence supports those scientific conclusions.
The idea of scientists actively steering their research or even fabricating their results so they can oppress conservatives is completely ridiculous. Science is the best process we have yet discovered to investigate our world and explain how and why phenomenon occur.
http://www.lsureveille.com/opinion/shockingly-simple-decline-in-trust-of-science-among-conservatives-unfortunate-1.2731181
- -
| 
