Research has revealed which demographics of people trust climate scientists and to what extent they do so.
The study, led by the Policy Institute at King’s College London (KCL) and Sense about Science surveyed 4,262 UK adults.
Only 54% of the public trust climate scientists – which is far less than 63% of people trusting scientists in general.
Within this, 30% say they are suspicious or cynical about climate scientists including 12% who strongly feel this way.
Voters on the left for the Green Party, Lib Dems and Labour, hold the highest amount of confidence in climate scientists, whereas the more right learning supporters trust them less.
Only two in 10 of Reform UK voters believe in climate scientists.
Professor Bobby Duffy, Director of the Policy Institute at KCL, said: “Sense of shared identity is a powerful driver of trust – and may present a significant risk, if growing political polarisation influences how people see science, as we’ve seen develop in the US over the last decade.
“For example, climate science has an incredibly strong link to identity divides, with trust in climate scientists ranging from 84% for Green supporters to just 19% for Reform UK supporters, a wider political gap than for scientists working in any other field.”
One of the strongest drivers of trust was found to be whether people think the scientists are ‘on the side of people like them.’ As 40% of those with low trust and a quarter of those with middling trust feel scientists care more about social and political causes than about scientific progress.
Low-trusters are nearly five times as likely as high-trusters to say ‘scientists are too woke.’
These phrases may have a connection to political views, as only 32% of Reform UK supporters believe that scientists are on their side, in comparison to 71% of Green supporters.
Openness to new concepts and transparency affect the trust people have in scientists as 73% of those with high confidence say that they are open and transparent in general compared with 10% of those with low trust.
Overall, outright suspicion and cynicism is a minority position and no group of scientists is actively distrusted by more than three in 10 of the public.
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