Andrew Jaffe: Leaves on the Line

In honor of National Science Week, the UK Governmental Office of Science and Technology has commisioned this MORI poll from which we learn that the great British public approves of science and scientists.

Never having really looked at an official poll before, I was amazed to find that the official publication (PDF) runs to 186 pages, dense with statistical analyses. So it's no surprise that the press coverage so far has essentially parroted the summary of results from the press release: most people think science makes a positive contribution to society, and most people trust scientists (more than they do the government or the media). On the other hand, they want us scientists to communicate our results more -- many people "say they receive too little information on the subject... despite the fact that science is now getting more media coverage, and (general) news can now be obtained around the clock." Perhaps if they heard more from us, they might trust us less -- like the politicians and journalists!

The pollsters also asked about funding: "there is widespread feeling that the independence of scientists is often put at risk by the interests of their funders." There's also some techie stuff on a "cluster analysis," where they show that most respondents' attitudes and backgrounds put them into one of six distinct groups (for example, if you're 35-44 and have kids in the house, you're likely to feel "that science communication and consultation with the public is not important or necessary"!) More on this when I get the time to digest the results.