Villanova University, USA.
Texas Tech University, USA.
Public Underst Sci. 2021 Feb;30(2):120-138. doi: 10.1177/0963662520977700. Epub 2020 Dec 18.
While people's views about science are related to identity factors (e.g. political orientation) and to knowledge of scientific theories, knowledge about how science works in general also plays an important role. To test this claim, we administered two detailed assessments about the practices of science to a demographically representative sample of the US public ( = 1500), along with questions about the acceptance of evolution, climate change, and vaccines. Participants' political and religious views predicted their acceptance of scientific claims, as in prior work. But a greater knowledge of the nature of science and a more mature view of how to mitigate scientific disagreements each related positively to acceptance. Importantly, the positive effect of scientific thinking on acceptance held regardless of participants' political ideology or religiosity. Increased attention to developing people's knowledge of how science works could thus help to combat resistance to scientific claims across the political and religious spectrum.
虽然人们对科学的看法与身份因素（如政治取向）和对科学理论的了解有关，但对科学一般运作方式的了解也起着重要作用。为了验证这一说法，我们向具有代表性的美国公众样本（=1500）发放了两份关于科学实践的详细评估问卷，以及关于进化论、气候变化和疫苗的接受度问题。与之前的研究一样，参与者的政治和宗教观点预测了他们对科学主张的接受程度。但是，对科学本质的更多了解以及对缓解科学分歧的更成熟看法，都与接受度呈正相关。重要的是，科学思维对接受度的积极影响与参与者的政治意识形态或宗教信仰无关。因此，更多地关注培养人们对科学运作方式的了解，可能有助于在政治和宗教领域抵制对科学主张的抵制。
