Predictors of trust in the general science and climate science research of US federal agencies

In this article, we focus on a key strategic objective of scientific organizations: maintaining the trust of the public. Using data from a nationally representative survey of American adults (n = 1510), we assess the extent to which demographic factors and political ideology are associated with citizens’ trust in general science and climate science research conducted by US federal agencies. Finally, we test whether priming individuals to first consider agencies’ general science research influences trust in their climate science research, and vice versa. We found that federal agencies’ general science research is more trusted than their climate science research—although a large minority of respondents did not have an opinion—and that political ideology has a strong influence on public trust in federal scientific research. We also found that priming participants to consider general scientific research does not increase trust in climate scientific research. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

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