Conservative unease with science is global, but extreme in the US

Nothing says "scientist" like test tubes. (credit: Hakan Dahlstrom / Flickr)

On Tuesday, the Pew Research Center released survey results that represent a picture of how the publics of 20 different countries view science and the technologies it enables-or at least how those countries viewed science and tech immediately before the pandemic struck. The good news is that there's widespread trust in scientists and a strong desire to act on their findings on issues like climate change.

But the results also contain plenty of reasons for concern. Some of the outcomes of scientific development, such as genetically modified foods, are widely mistrusted by the public in most countries. And, in many countries, there's a large partisan divide in views of scientists-and the divide is the most extreme in the United States.

Normally, we'd spend some time discussing the details of how survey data was gathered. But with 20 countries, each with its own independent surveys, we'll just link you to the details and note that at least 1,000 people were surveyed in the following countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

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