THIRD RAIL: Conservative people in USA appear to distrust science more broadly than previously thought. Distrust science that does not correspond to their egoism. Trust is also lower in fields that contribute to better health, economic growth and productivity.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1080362

Conservative people in America appear to distrust science more broadly than previously thought. Not only do they distrust science that does not correspond to their worldview. Compared to liberal Americans, their trust is also lower in fields that contribute to economic growth and productivity. Short interventions aimed at strengthening trust have little effect. This is apparent from new research by social psychologists at the University of Amsterdam, which has now been published in Nature Human Behaviour.

Science helps solve major societal problems, such as pandemics and climate change. But if people do not trust scientists, they will be less likely to accept scientific solutions.‘In America, but also in other countries, conservatives generally have lower trust in science,’ says one of the researchers involved, Bastiaan Rutjens. ‘Since the 1980s, trust of science among conservatives in America has even been plummeting.’

Part of the explanation is that scientific findings do not align with conservatives' political or economic beliefs. ‘But science is also increasingly dismissed in some circles as a “leftist hobby”, and universities as strongholds of the leftist establishment,’ Rutjens adds.The researchers wanted to gain more insight into how trust varies across scientific fields and whether short interventions could strengthen trust.

Vukašin Gligorić, Gerben van Kleef, and Bastiaan Rutjens, 2025, ‘Political ideology and trust in scientists in the US’, in: Nature Human Behaviour

Rutjens contributed to this study, which was led by his PhD student Vukašin Gligorić. Gligorić recently obtained his PhD doctorate at the University of Amsterdam and will start this Spring as postdoctoral researcher at the NYU Abu Dhabi.

Another striking finding was that none of the five interventions succeeded in increasing conservatives' trust in scientists. Even when the message was well-aligned with their values, their attitude hardly changed. ‘This suggests that their distrust is deeply-rooted and not easily changed,’ says Rutjens.