Both trust in, and polarization of trust in, relevant sciences have increased through the COVID-19 pandemic

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 18; no. 3; p. e0278169
• Main Authors: Radrizzani, Sofia, Fonseca, Cristina, Woollard, Alison, Pettitt, Jonathan, Hurst, Laurence D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 23.03.2023; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Academic Success; Adult; Attitudes; Biology and Life Sciences; Communication; Control; Coronaviruses; COVID-19 - epidemiology; COVID-19 - prevention & control; COVID-19 Vaccines; Datasets; Efficiency; Epidemics; Humans; Hypotheses; Knowledge; Literacy; Medicine and Health Sciences; Pandemics; People and Places; Pharmaceutical industry; Polarization; Polls & surveys; Public health; Public opinion; Science; Science Policy; Scientists; Self Report; Social Sciences; United Kingdom; Vaccines; United Kingdom; United Kingdom > UK

While attempts to promote acceptance of well-evidenced science have historically focused on increasing scientific knowledge, it is now thought that for acceptance of science, trust in, rather than simply knowledge of, science is foundational. Here we employ the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experim...