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US trust in scientists plunged during the pandemic — but it’s starting to recover

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2024-11-15 12:30:18

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A March for Science rally in Massachusetts. This year, public trust in scientists edged up over 2023 levels, a survey has found. Credit: Brian Snyder/Reuters

For the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, trust in scientists has increased in the United States — but just slightly, according to a poll conducted two weeks before the US presidential election.

The survey, released today by the Pew Research Center in Washington DC, found that the proportion of those polled who believe that scientists act in the best interests of the public rose from 73% a year ago to 76% now (see ‘Modest rise in trust’). That’s still lower than the 87% who trusted scientists in April 2020, shortly after lockdowns began. But it marks a new shift “away from the declines in trust in science that we saw during the pandemic”, says Alec Tyson, the lead author of the report and an associate director of research at the Pew centre.

The findings add to other data that are good news for researchers. A survey of more than 70,000 people in 67 countries in 2022 and 2023 found overall high levels of trust in scientists, according to a preprint posted on the OSF server in January1.