The Public V Scientists
This is an interesting article talking about a Pew survery comparing the views of scientists (AAAS members) versus the general public. (The Pew Report, which I started to read but is very long) Unsurprisingly, most scientists don't think the public know very much about science and certain "hot button" issues like genetically modified food, pesticides, and nuclear power show vastly different opinions between scientists and normies.
The Pew Report has some nice graphs to illustrate many of the differences. The Philly.com article summarizes some differences well since that is its focus. The Pew Report compares various things also. From the article:
"In eight of 13 science-oriented issues, there was a 20-percentage point or higher gap separating the opinions of the public and the members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, according to survey work by the Pew Research Center. The japs didn't correlate to any liberal-conservative split; the scientists at times take more traditionally conservative views and at times more liberal."
The biggest split was based on genetically modified foods. Apparently only 37% of the public believes that GMO are safe versus the 88% of scientists who think they are generally safe. On pesticides, its 68% Scientists would eat pesticided food versus 28% of normies. Since I side on the scientist side, I'll say that I'm surprised that the "normie" side is so low. But I guess that's the cause of such wacky food trends.
Summary of some stuff based on Pew Charts:
Animal Research - Scientists 89% vs Normies 47%
Evolution - S 98% vs N 65%
Vaccines - S 86% vs N 68%
Overpopulation - S 82% vs N 59%
Nuclear Power - S 65% vs N 45%
I typically agree on the scientist side except for some issues like off shore drilling. But at least no one has the delusion that the US has good education. Also, the survey reported that 84% of scientists think its a major problem that the public doesn't know much about science. I would heartily agree with that.
But there are various interesting thing with this article and the Pew Report that it is based on.
The Pew Report has some nice graphs to illustrate many of the differences. The Philly.com article summarizes some differences well since that is its focus. The Pew Report compares various things also. From the article:
"In eight of 13 science-oriented issues, there was a 20-percentage point or higher gap separating the opinions of the public and the members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, according to survey work by the Pew Research Center. The japs didn't correlate to any liberal-conservative split; the scientists at times take more traditionally conservative views and at times more liberal."
The biggest split was based on genetically modified foods. Apparently only 37% of the public believes that GMO are safe versus the 88% of scientists who think they are generally safe. On pesticides, its 68% Scientists would eat pesticided food versus 28% of normies. Since I side on the scientist side, I'll say that I'm surprised that the "normie" side is so low. But I guess that's the cause of such wacky food trends.
Summary of some stuff based on Pew Charts:
Animal Research - Scientists 89% vs Normies 47%
Evolution - S 98% vs N 65%
Vaccines - S 86% vs N 68%
Overpopulation - S 82% vs N 59%
Nuclear Power - S 65% vs N 45%
I typically agree on the scientist side except for some issues like off shore drilling. But at least no one has the delusion that the US has good education. Also, the survey reported that 84% of scientists think its a major problem that the public doesn't know much about science. I would heartily agree with that.
But there are various interesting thing with this article and the Pew Report that it is based on.