While most of the general public may not want to spend their life crunching numbers or mixing chemicals in a lab, often science breaches the great divide. While there may be a few points of contention, the good news at least is that most Americans believe that science and scientists are invaluable resources for information. In fact in a new public opinion poll released yesterday by the Pew Research Center and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 79 percent of those interviewed said that they believed in the important nature of science. But when it came to controversial topics like climate change and GMOs, the stats and the public opinion were not nearly as generous.
The poll revealed a clear split between scientists and public opinion when the topics of controversial science were brought up. And while the public may think that scientists serve an important role, it was clear from their answers that they did not trust the science currently available.
Eighty-seven percent of scientists surveyed in 2014 said that human activity has driven global warming, yet only 50 percent of Americans believed that to be true. And while GMOs are widely consumed, in fact are predominant in certain staple crops such as rice and corn, the public and scientists differed by a whopping 51 percent when asked whether or not it was "safe to eat genetically modified foods".
"There is a disconnect between the way in which the public perceives the state of science and science's position on a variety of issues, and the way in which the scientific community ... looks at the state of science" Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Alan Leshner says. "That's a cause of concern."
Instead of using empirically-based science, the public opinion poll reflects that a predominate cross-section of Americans use political orientation and ideology to drive their views on the controversial topics. Though researchers have been aware of the alarmingly evident disconnect, which has remained roughly continuous throughout recent polls, they are hopeful that current research which will help enlighten the public on these hard-hitting issues may soon change the public opinion.
