Key Takeaways:
- 77% of U.S. adults now say they have a great deal (28%) or fair amount of confidence (49%) in scientists to act in the public’s best interests. This is about the same as last year.
- Americans’ confidence in scientists remains lower than it was prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Confidence in scientists is similar to what it was in December 2021 after declining during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Democrats continue to have more confidence in scientists than Republicans (90% vs. 65% say they have at least a fair amount), but the views of Democrats and Republicans are largely unchanged in the last year.
- Scientists continue to rank higher in confidence compared with other prominent groups in society, such as business leaders or elected officials.
Americans’ confidence in scientists since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic
Pew Research Center has tracked trends in public trust in scientists closely since 2016. In the new survey, public confidence in scientists is about the same as last year: 77% of U.S. adults say they have at least a fair amount of confidence in scientists to act in the public’s best interests, including 28% who say they have a great deal of confidence in scientists. Last year, 76% of Americans said they had at least a fair amount of confidence in scientists to act in the best interests of the public.
Still, public confidence in scientists remains lower than it was at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, 87% of U.S. adults said they had at least a fair amount of confidence in scientists to act in the public’s best interests. About four-in-ten had strong trust in scientists in early 2020.
Democrats and those who lean to the Democratic party remain more confident in scientists to act in the public’s best interests than Republicans and GOP leaners. In the new survey, 90% of Democrats say they have at least a fair amount of confidence in scientists, compared with 65% of Republicans. This gap in confidence between Republicans and Democrats has been broadly similar in every Center survey since 2021.
Among Republicans, public confidence in scientists is still far lower than it was at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The share of Republicans with at least a fair amount of confidence in scientists declined by 22 percentage points between April 2020 and December 2021. Since 2021, confidence in scientists among Republicans has remained relatively steady.
Views by race and ethnicity
Overall, White, Black and Hispanic adults have similar levels of confidence in scientists to act in the public’s best interests. Asian adults are more likely to have higher levels of confidence. This pattern has been consistent in our surveys since 2021.
In our surveys prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and early in the pandemic, White adults were more likely than Black adults to express higher levels of confidence in scientists. Other research also found a confidence gap between White and Black Americans prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This gap between White and Black Americans largely closed following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic because confidence in scientists declined among White Republicans.
In the new survey, 64% of White Republicans say they have at least a fair amount of confidence in scientists, much lower than the 85% who felt the same in April 2020.
Black Americans have a similar level of confidence in scientists now than they did five years ago.
Views by education
College graduates are more likely to have a great deal of confidence in scientists than adults without a college degree, but this difference is driven by Democrats. There’s no similar education gap in high confidence among Republicans.
Among Democrats, 56% of those with a college degree have a great deal of confidence in scientists to act in the public’s best interests. In contrast, 37% of Democrats without a college degree have a high level of confidence in scientists.
It’s a different story among Republicans. Small shares of those with or without a college degree have a great deal of confidence in scientists.
Americans’ confidence in scientists compared with other groups
Americans continue to have more confidence in scientists to act in the public’s best interests than many other groups we’ve asked about, including journalists, business leaders and elected officials.
Scientists have consistently ranked at the top or near the top of the groups since we started asking about confidence in 2016.
In the new survey, Americans have similar levels of confidence in scientists and the military. The military has consistently ranked near the top with scientists in our surveys.
Americans have the least amount of confidence in business leaders and elected officials to act in the best interests of the public. These two groups have consistently ranked at the bottom of the groups included in our surveys.
Scientists are not the only group that the public has less confidence in than five years ago. Between 2020 and 2023, confidence in all eight groups we asked about declined.
Since 2023, confidence in all eight groups, including scientists, has either not changed or increased. Refer to the Appendix for more on confidence in prominent groups since 2019.
