SCIENCE IN PUBLIC : TRENDS AND DETERMINANTS OF PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARD SCIENCE

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

As science and technology have exerted their influence across the whole range of the structure and functioning of contemporary society, the question of how the public perceives science has attracted growing attention from the scientific community and social scientists. This dissertation addresses this question by examining the social determinants of public attitudes toward science and the trends of these attitudes. Using the U.S. Science and Engineering Indicators Survey and the General Social Survey, this dissertation examines the effects of the level of scientific knowledge, the amount of education, the content of education, gender, race, income, the general tendency to trust in social institutions, and political ideology, along with other sociodemographic variables, on attitudes toward science in general and on attitudes toward specific applications of scientific research.
The results of this study highlight the limitations of the deficit model of public understanding of and support for science and technology, which attributes public skepticism about science and technology to the public's low level of scientific knowledge. This study shows that emphasizing the effect of the level of scientific knowledge while ignoring the effect of other dimensions of education exaggerates the role that the level of scientific knowledge plays in shaping attitudes toward science. This study also shows that the effect of the level of scientific knowledge on attitudes toward specific controversial applications of science and technology is far weaker than that on attitudes toward science in general, which demonstrates the limitation of the deficit model as an explanation of public resistance to controversial sciences and technologies.
By analyzing trends in public attitudes toward science among survey data accumulated for three decades, this study also tests whether public confidence in science has declined, as is claimed by many scientists and theories of late modernity, and examines whether the overall trends mask some diverging trends across important social groups. The trend analysis shows that while public confidence in science has been quite stable over the last three decades, the gap across race and educational levels tended to increase during the 1990s.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Dedication = i
• Acknowledgement = ii
• Table of Contents = iv
• Abstract = ix
• CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
• 1.1. INTRODUCTION = 1
• 1.2. OVERVIEW OF THE ANALYSIS = 9
• ENDNOTES = 13
• CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW THE STATUS OF SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC'S MIND
• 2.1. INTRODUCTION = 16
• 2.2. SOCIAL THEORIES OF LATE MODERNITY: THE LEGITIMACY CRISIS OF SCIENCE? = 18
• 2.2.1. Jurgen Habermas: The Premise of the Enlightenment Ideal of Science = 19
• 2.2.2. Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck: Reflexive Modernity and Science = 20
• 2.2.3. Lyotard: The Legitimacy Crisis of Science = 22
• 2.2.4. Summary = 23
• 2.3. QUALITATIVE CASE STUDIES OF THE PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENCE (PUS) = 25
• 2.3.1. Problematizing Science = 27
• 2.3.2. (Re)Conceptualizing Science(s) = 30
• 2.3.3. Summary = 32
• 2.4. PUBLIC OPINION STUDIES OF ATTITUDES TOWARD SCIENCE = 34
• 2.4.1. Education and the Deficit Model of Public Support for Science = 37
• 2.4.2. The Level of Scientific Knowledge and Years of Schooling = 39
• 2.4.3. The Science Wars and the Effect of Educational Content = 41
• 2.4.4. Gender, Race, Social Class, and Other Determinants ofAttitudes toward Science = 44
• 2.4.5. Summary: Some Limitations of Past Survey Research on Public Attitudes toward
• Science = 48
• ENDNOTES = 50
• CHAPTER3: DATA, MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES, AND METHODS
• 3.1. INTRODUCTION = 52
• 3.2. DATA = 53
• 3.2.1. Science & Engineering Indicators Surveys = 53
• 3.2.2. General Social Survey = 55
• 3.2.3. Sample Representativeness = 57
• 3.3. MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES = 58
• 3.3.1. Measures of Dependent Variables: the SEIS = 58
• 3.3.2. Measures of Dependent Variables: the GSS = 59
• 3,3.3, Measures of Independent Variables and Control Variables = 60
• 3.3.4. Treatment of Missing Cases = 64
• 3.4. METHODS = 66
• 3.5. SUMNIARY = 69
• ENDNOTES = 70
• CHAPTER 4: EDUCATION AND PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARD SCLENCE: TESTING THE DEFICIT MODEL
• 4.1. INTRODUCTION = 83
• 4.2. THE DEFICIT MODEL OF PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENCE AND IT'S IDEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS = 84
• 4.3. ANALYTIC APPROACH = 89
• 4.4. EMPIRICAL RESULTS = 91
• 4.4.1. Effects of Years of Schooling and Levels of Scientific Knowledge on Attitudes toward Science = 91
• 4.4.2. Testing the Effects of Educational Content = 95
• 4.4.3. Education and Public Attitudes toward Controversial Scientific Research = 96
• 4.5. SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION = 104
• ENDNOTES = 109
• CHAPTER 5: SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARD SCIENCE
• 5.1. INTRODUCTION = 122
• 5.2. TESTING THE EFFECTS OF EDUCATION AND GENDER ON ATTITUDES TOWARD SCAIENCE = 123
• 5.3. EFFECTS OF RACE, INCOME, POLITICAL IDEOLOGY, AND RELIGION = 125
• 5.4. EXPLAINING THE EFFECT OF YEARS OF SCHOOLING, THE RACE GAP, 4ND THE GENDER GAP = 129
• 5.4.1. Decomposition of the Effect of Years of Schooling on Attitudes toward Science = 130
• 5.4.2. Decomposition of Race Differences in Attitudes toward Science = 131
• 5.4.3. Decomposition of Gender Differences in Attitudes toward Science = 133
• 5.5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION = 134
• ENDNOTES = 137
• CHAPTER 6: TRENDS IN PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARD SCIENCE
• 5.1.INTRODUCTION = 147
• 5.2. ANALYTIC APPROACH = 148
• 5.3. OVERALL TRENDS IN ATTITUDES TOWARD SCIENCE IN GENERAL = 149
• 5.3.1. The Results of the Analysis of the GSS, 1973-1998 = 149
• 5.3.2. The Results of the Analysis of the SEIS, 1979-1997 = 152
• 6.4. TRENDS IN ATTITUDES TOWARD SCIENCE BY GENDER, RACE, INCOME, AND EDUCATIONAL LEVEL = 154
• 6.4.1. Gender and Trends in Attitudes toward Science = 154
• 6.4.2. Race, Income, and Trends in Attitudes toward Science = 156
• 6.4.3. Education and Trends in Attitudes toward Science = 158
• 6.5. TRENDS IN ATTITUDES TOWARD SCIENCE IN PARTICULAR = 159
• 6.5.1. The Overall Trends = 159
• 6.5.2. Trend Differences by Gender and Educational Levels = 160
• 6.6. SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION = 161
• ENDNOTES = 165
• CHAPTER 7: DETERMINANTS AND TRENDS OF ATTITUDES TOWARD SCIENCESUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
• 7.1. DETERMINANTS = 217
• 7.2. TRENDS = 221
• BIBLIOGRAPHY = 226