Public understanding of science: Survey research around the world

Martin W. Bauer and Bankole A. Falade

Introduction

The term public understanding of science (PUS) has a dual meaning. First, it covers a field of event activities that aim at bringing science closer to the people, at promoting public understanding and stimulating the societal conversation (for inventories of such initiatives see Fuller 2001; European Commission 2012; Miller et al. 2002). Second, it refers to empirical research into the public opinion of science, and how this might vary across time and place, and defines context or impact for the above activities. The two fields are closely related, as PUS activities use opinion research to invigorate public debates. However, we concentrate our review on the latter, namely on research that uses large-scale representative national and international sample surveys, asking many people standard questions from a questionnaire. The chapter builds on previous reviews of this survey field (Etzioni and Nunn 1976; Pion and Lipsey 1981; Wynne 1995; Miller 2004; Bauer et al. 2007; Allum 2010; Besley 2013). We revisit the three paradigms of PUS research through the questions they pose, the interventions they suggest and the criticisms they attract, and end with an outlook on novel research trends.¹

A big data pool from decades of survey research

Tables 14.1a, 14.1b and 14.1c list the main surveys of public understanding of science among adult populations since 1957, typically with nationally representative samples of 1,000 interviewees or more. The lists are probably not exhaustive, but show the better-known surveys of scientific literacy, interests in and attitudes to science, many of which are partially comparable when modelled on the US National Science Foundation indicator (NSF) indicators series since 1979, or the Eurobarometer series since 1978. The earliest of these known surveys dates from 1957 in the USA, just

Table 14.1a Surveys for Europe and North America

Year

Europe UK

DE

1957

Boy

EB7

EBIOa

Boy

Boy/<17

Boy/EB31

EB7

EBIOa

EB31

(Continued)

Public understanding of science

Table 14.1a (Continued)

Martin W. Bauer and Bankole A. Falade

• 2016
• 2017
• 2018
• 2019
• 2020

BAS

EB20

WIBA

WIBA/acatech

WIBA

WIBA/acatech

WIBA

EB20/Nancy EB20

EB20

Observa

Observa

Observa

Observa

EB20

EB20

G SS

G SS

EB20 G SS

Public understanding of science

• 242
• 14.1b Surveys for Asia, Africa, Australia and Russia

Other Asia

Russia S. Africa AUS NZ Japan

SAASTA NISTEP

SAASTA

HSE STAR

HSE

HSE MST

HSE

SAASTA NISTEP

HSE

HSE

HSE

SAASTA

NUA

NISTEP

KOFAC

SunYa

NIST ED

[CRISP]

Martin W. Bauer and Bankole A. Falade

Public understanding of science

244

Table 14.1c Surveys for Latin America and Caribbean

Year Brazil Argentina Venezuela Costa Rica Panama Uruguay Ecuador Paraguay Peru Chile

Mexico Trinidad Columbia

• 1985
• 1986
• 1987 CNPq
• 1988
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993

Martin W. Bauer and Bankole A. Falade

Conacyt ??? ColSci

CONICYT

Public understanding of sciencebefore the launch ot the Russian satellite Sputnik shocked the western world (Withey 1959). Other national series started later: in Britain since 1985; the French series (see Boy 2012) is the oldest reaching back to 1972; Spain started regular surveys in 2002; Italy in 2007; Germany in 2014; Japan in 1991, India in 1992; Russia in 1995; China in 2000, and Korea in 2002. These efforts are emulated and imitated across the globe during the 1990s and into the 2000s, first in Asia, Russia, Australia and New Zealand, and, in the early 2000s, across Latin America. Brazil 1987 and Colombia 1994 had earlier surveys (though the latter data is lost). South Africa is constructing a new national PUS survey base after earlier surveys which had included only the white population. PUS data is also materialising in Nigeria (Falade 2014).

Most science attitude surveys are however related to specific and often controversial developments; they are excluded from this review, for reasons of practicality. Since 1975, Eurobarometer ran over 100 multinational surveys on nuclear power, environment, IT, cyber-society, biotechnology or Al (see Gaskell et al. 2011 for the biotechnology' series since 1993). Risk perception research has conducted numerous surveys of understanding people’s take on various hazards. Though clearly relevant for the analysis of science cultures, these topic-specific efforts are all not considered here.

All in all, this still amounts to big data. A corpus of nationally and internationally comparable data has accumulated over the past 60 years which offers opportunities for novel analysis, dynamic modelling and comparisons that will define a renewed research effort; a treasure to be lifted by adventurous prospectors and competent researchers.