Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213;
Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Sep 5;114(36):9587-9592. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1704882114. Epub 2017 Aug 21.
Although Americans generally hold science in high regard and respect its findings, for some contested issues, such as the existence of anthropogenic climate change, public opinion is polarized along religious and political lines. We ask whether individuals with more general education and greater science knowledge, measured in terms of science education and science literacy, display more (or less) polarized beliefs on several such issues. We report secondary analyses of a nationally representative dataset (the General Social Survey), examining the predictors of beliefs regarding six potentially controversial issues. We find that beliefs are correlated with both political and religious identity for stem cell research, the Big Bang, and human evolution, and with political identity alone on climate change. Individuals with greater education, science education, and science literacy display more polarized beliefs on these issues. We find little evidence of political or religious polarization regarding nanotechnology and genetically modified foods. On all six topics, people who trust the scientific enterprise more are also more likely to accept its findings. We discuss the causal mechanisms that might underlie the correlation between education and identity-based polarization.
尽管美国人普遍对科学持高度尊重的态度并尊重其发现，但对于一些有争议的问题，例如人为气候变化的存在，公众舆论在宗教和政治立场上存在两极分化。我们想知道，那些受过更多一般教育和具有更高科学知识的人（通过科学教育和科学素养来衡量），在几个这样的问题上是否表现出更为（或更少）两极化的信仰。我们报告了对一个具有全国代表性的数据集（一般社会调查）的二次分析，该数据集研究了六个潜在有争议问题的信仰预测因素。我们发现，在干细胞研究、大爆炸和人类进化方面，信仰与政治和宗教身份相关，而在气候变化方面，信仰仅与政治身份相关。受过更多教育、科学教育和科学素养的人对这些问题的信仰更加两极化。我们几乎没有发现关于纳米技术和转基因食品的政治或宗教两极化的证据。在所有六个主题上，更信任科学事业的人也更有可能接受其发现。我们讨论了可能导致教育和基于身份的两极化之间相关性的因果机制。
