Schug Markus, Bilandzic Helena, Kinnebrock Susanne
University of Augsburg, Germany.
Public Underst Sci. 2025 Aug;34(6):752-769. doi: 10.1177/09636625251315882. Epub 2025 Feb 28.
Public discussions of controversial science fields like COVID-19 or climate science increasingly address inner-scientific structures and the norms guiding the scientific system-aspects that are normally discussed within the scientific community. However, not much is known about the endorsement of scientific norms by non-scientists and how those endorsements differ between controversial und uncontroversial science fields. We conducted a cross-sectional national survey in Germany ( = 1007) to capture the public endorsement of scientific norms and explored the role of the science field, political ideology, and science news consumption. Results suggest that the endorsement of scientific norms is significantly higher in controversial fields than in less controversial fields. More left-leaning political ideology is connected to higher levels of norm endorsement; science news consumption is partly associated with lower scientific norm endorsement. We discuss our findings regarding their implications for the public's image and understanding of controversial science fields.
对于像新冠疫情或气候科学这样有争议的科学领域，公众讨论越来越多地涉及科学内部结构以及指导科学体系的规范——这些方面通常是在科学界内部进行讨论的。然而，对于非科学家对科学规范的认可情况以及这些认可在有争议和无争议的科学领域之间如何不同，我们所知甚少。我们在德国进行了一项全国性横断面调查（n = 1007），以了解公众对科学规范的认可情况，并探讨了科学领域、政治意识形态和科学新闻消费的作用。结果表明，有争议领域对科学规范的认可明显高于争议较小的领域。更倾向于左翼的政治意识形态与更高水平的规范认可相关联；科学新闻消费与较低的科学规范认可部分相关。我们讨论了我们的研究结果对公众对有争议科学领域的形象和理解的影响。
