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Trust in Scientists on Climate Change and Vaccines

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  • Lawrence C. Hamilton
  • Joel Hartter
  • Kei Saito

Abstract

On climate change and other topics, conservatives have taken positions at odds with a strong scientific consensus. Claims that this indicates a broad conservative distrust of science have been countered by assertions that while conservatives might oppose the scientific consensus on climate change or evolution, liberals oppose scientists on some other domains such as vaccines. Evidence for disproportionately liberal bias against science on vaccines has been largely anecdotal, however. Here, we test this proposition of opposite biases using 2014 survey data from Oregon and New Hampshire. Across vaccine as well as climate change questions on each of these two surveys, we find that Democrats are most likely to say they trust scientists for information, and Tea Party supporters are least likely, contradicting the proposition of opposite bias. Moreover, partisan divisions tend to widen with education. Theoretical explanations that have been offered for liberal trust or conservative distrust of science in other specific domains such as climate change or environmental protection fit less well with these results on vaccines. Given the much different content of climate change and vaccine issues, the common political pattern appears more consistent with hypotheses of broader ideological divisions on acceptance of science.

Suggested Citation

  • Lawrence C. Hamilton & Joel Hartter & Kei Saito, 2015. "Trust in Scientists on Climate Change and Vaccines," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(3), pages 21582440156, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:5:y:2015:i:3:p:2158244015602752
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244015602752
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    Cited by:

    1. Christel W. van Eck & Bob C. Mulder & Sander van der Linden, 2020. "Climate Change Risk Perceptions of Audiences in the Climate Change Blogosphere," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-17, September.
    2. Clulow, Z. & Reiner, D. M., 2022. "How to distinguish climate sceptics, antivaxxers, and persistent sceptics: Evidence from a multi-country survey of public attitudes," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2209, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    3. Monica Pivetti & Giannino Melotti & Mariana Bonomo & Eemeli Hakoköngäs, 2021. "Conspiracy Beliefs and Acceptance of COVID-Vaccine: An Exploratory Study in Italy," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-17, March.
    4. E. Keith Smith & Adam Mayer, 2019. "Anomalous Anglophones? Contours of free market ideology, political polarization, and climate change attitudes in English-speaking countries, Western European and post-Communist states," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 17-34, January.
    5. Justin Schonfeld & Edward Qian & Jason Sinn & Jeffrey Cheng & Madhur Anand & Chris T. Bauch, 2021. "Debates about vaccines and climate change on social media networks: a study in contrasts," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-10, December.
    6. Haywantee Ramkissoon, 2021. "Social Bonding and Public Trust/Distrust in COVID-19 Vaccines," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-6, September.
    7. Lawrence C. Hamilton, 2016. "Public Awareness of the Scientific Consensus on Climate," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(4), pages 21582440166, November.
    8. Erik O. Sterner & Tom Adawi & U. Martin Persson & Ulrika Lundqvist, 2019. "Knowing how and knowing when: unpacking public understanding of atmospheric CO2 accumulation," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 154(1), pages 49-67, May.
    9. Hakobyana, Zaruhi & Koulovatianos, Christos, 2019. "Populism and polarization in social media without fake news: The vicious circle of biases, beliefs and network homophily," CFS Working Paper Series 626, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    10. Lawrence C Hamilton & Joel Hartter & Erin Bell, 2019. "Generation gaps in US public opinion on renewable energy and climate change," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(7), pages 1-20, July.
    11. Linda M. Fogg & Lawrence C. Hamilton & Erin S. Bell, 2020. "Views of the Highway: Infrastructure Reality, Perceptions, and Politics," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(4), pages 21582440209, October.
    12. Thomas G. Safford & Emily H. Whitmore & Lawrence C. Hamilton, 2021. "Scientists, presidents, and pandemics—comparing the science–politics nexus during the Zika virus and COVID‐19 outbreaks," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(6), pages 2482-2498, November.
    13. Liat Ayalon, 2021. "Trust and Compliance with COVID-19 Preventive Behaviors during the Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-10, March.
    14. Buckman, Cierra & Liu, Indran C. & Cortright, Lindsay & Tumin, Dmitry & Syed, Salma, 2020. "The influence of local political trends on childhood vaccine completion in North Carolina," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    15. Ho Fai Chan & Nikita Ferguson & David A. Savage & David Stadelmann & Benno Torgler, 2020. "Is Science Able to Perform Under Pressure? Insights from COVID-19," CREMA Working Paper Series 2020-07, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    16. Dylan Bugden, 2022. "Denial and distrust: explaining the partisan climate gap," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 1-23, February.
    17. Walter, Dror & Ophir, Yotam & Lokmanoglu, Ayse D. & Pruden, Meredith L., 2022. "Vaccine discourse in white nationalist online communication: A mixed-methods computational approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    18. Lucia Savadori & Giuseppe Espa & Maria Michela Dickson, 2020. "The polarizing impact of numeracy, economic literacy, and science literacy on attitudes toward immigration," Papers 2011.02362, arXiv.org.
    19. Mohamed Mostagir & James Siderius, 2022. "Learning in a Post-Truth World," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(4), pages 2860-2868, April.
    20. Min Gon Chung & Hana Kang & Thomas Dietz & Patricia Jaimes & Jianguo Liu, 2019. "Activating values for encouraging pro-environmental behavior: the role of religious fundamentalism and willingness to sacrifice," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 9(4), pages 371-385, December.

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