TY - JOUR
T1 - Public perceptions of who counts as a scientist for controversial science
AU - Suldovsky, Brianne
AU - Landrum, Asheley
AU - Stroud, Natalie Jomini
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2019/10/1
Y1 - 2019/10/1
N2 - In an era where expertise is increasingly critiqued, this study draws from the research on expertise and scientist stereotyping to explore who the public considers to be a scientist in the context of media coverage about climate change and genetically modified organisms. Using survey data from the United States, we find that political ideology and science knowledge affect who the US public believes is a scientist in these domains. Our results suggest important differences in the role of science media attention and science media selection in the publics “scientist” labeling. In addition, we replicate previous work and find that compared to other people who work in science, those with PhDs in Biology and Chemistry are most commonly seen as scientists.
AB - In an era where expertise is increasingly critiqued, this study draws from the research on expertise and scientist stereotyping to explore who the public considers to be a scientist in the context of media coverage about climate change and genetically modified organisms. Using survey data from the United States, we find that political ideology and science knowledge affect who the US public believes is a scientist in these domains. Our results suggest important differences in the role of science media attention and science media selection in the publics “scientist” labeling. In addition, we replicate previous work and find that compared to other people who work in science, those with PhDs in Biology and Chemistry are most commonly seen as scientists.
KW - climate change
KW - expertise
KW - genetically modified organisms
KW - media
KW - scientist stereotypes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85068187006&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0963662519856768
DO - 10.1177/0963662519856768
M3 - Article
C2 - 31230565
AN - SCOPUS:85068187006
VL - 28
SP - 797
EP - 811
JO - Public Understanding of Science
JF - Public Understanding of Science
SN - 0963-6625
IS - 7
ER -