The Public’s Trust in Scientists Rises, Pew Poll Shows

Despite growing support, respondents still have concerns when it comes to scientific transparency and integrity.

Written byAshley Yeager

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Public trust in science rose in recent years, a new survey shows: 86 percent of Americans say that they have at least “a fair amount” of confidence in scientists to act in the public interest, up from 78 percent in 2016.

“As a scientist, I’m pretty cheerful about that,” Susan Fiske, a psychologist at Princeton University who studies trust and was not involved with the survey, tells The Washington Post. The results show scientists now rank slightly ahead of military leaders and well above religious heads, journalists, and business executives when it comes to trust.

The Pew Research Center conducted the survey in January 2019, asking randomly selected adults living across the 50 US states to take a self-administered web-based survey: 4,464 individuals participated.

The results showed that faith in scientists often depends on the researchers’ line of work. “Trusting a group or profession comes from ...

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Meet the Author

Ashley Yeager
Ashley started at The Scientist in 2018. Before joining the staff, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, a writer at the Simons Foundation, and a web producer at Science News, among other positions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT. Ashley edits the Scientist to Watch and Profile sections of the magazine and writes news, features, and other stories for both online and print.
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