{"text":[[{"start":4.95,"text":"The writer is a science commentator"}],[{"start":7.95,"text":"There is something for everyone in a new report on public trust in science. Optimists will rejoice that 84 per cent of Britons say they still trust in science to some degree, with only two per cent declaring no faith at all. Pessimists may dwell instead on the plunge in numbers trusting it “a lot”, down from 63 per cent in 2020 to 34 per cent today."}],[{"start":29.5,"text":"But there’s another pattern that stands out in these disruptive times: science is increasingly seen as a fallible institution run by a liberal elite in its own interests. Three in ten Britons, the poll reveals, think science is too closely aligned to political causes, with nearly a third of Reform UK voters suspecting a left-wing bias."}],[{"start":50.3,"text":"The trouble is, scientists as a group really do lean politically to the left. The report, published last week, was commissioned by the biomedical charity Wellcome Trust and carried out by the polling company More in Common. Of the 142 scientists polled, two-thirds belonged to its two most left-leaning, socially liberal groups. That fits with other evidence that researchers are a liberal elite: a 2022 study found that US academics who made political donations overwhelmingly favoured Democrats. "}],[{"start":80.8,"text":"Given that academics who are perceived to share people’s values are more likely to be trusted, irrespective of expertise, it is worth asking why the skew exists; whether it matters that scientists differ from the public they serve; and how to bridge the gap."}],[{"start":94.7,"text":"The company polled several thousand people across England, Scotland and Wales in 2025-26, slotting each into one of seven groups, such as progressive activists, established liberals, traditional conservatives and dissenting disrupters — according to their attitudes and beliefs."}],[{"start":114.25,"text":"Trust in science is broadly high but spread unevenly across the groups; high levels of trust are linked to optimism about the future; and, in a world of fragmented media and information overload, nearly four in ten think there is simply too much content swilling around to know what is true about science. More than a third believe that funders unduly sway research agendas and conclusions."}],[{"start":138.7,"text":"Sceptical scrollers and dissenting disrupters, who distrust institutions, are the least trusting groups; they are also the least likely to have had the Covid vaccine. While two-thirds of people across the board want clear, actionable advice in a crisis, the scrollers and disrupters prefer knowing the trade-offs and limits of scientific certainty. Dissenting disrupters and traditional conservatives are most suspicious of science becoming allied to political causes."}],[{"start":167.14999999999998,"text":"Education levels are known to correlate to voting behaviour, with graduates both in the US and UK tending to more liberal views than non-graduates. Universities and research institutions are therefore fishing from a narrowed ideological pool. Stanford University’s Hoover Institution recently described this skewing as the “elephant in the room”, potentially creating blind spots, but hiring researchers according to political allegiance seems no less problematic. Political beliefs may also be less relevant to shaping questions in some fields, say particle physics, than in others, like social psychology or AI applications."}],[{"start":202.45,"text":"For Paul Nurse, the Nobel-Prize winning biologist, President of the Royal Society and Labour Party member, personal politics should not affect the day job. Science, he told me, was about reproducible data, rigorous thinking and balanced debate in pursuit of evidence that can be replicated by anyone: “This is the job of scientists, whatever their own political leanings. I think they are pretty good at doing that job, and that is why they earn that [public] trust.” In other words, scientists might be political but the scientific method is not."}],[{"start":236.39999999999998,"text":"While mainstream UK parties all support science, Nurse added, “the problems are with those on the extremes, both left and right”. He cites climate denialism and vaccine scepticism, particularly from US leaders, as current threats."}],[{"start":251.2,"text":"This febrile, polarised political climate makes it even more critical, then, for scientists to retain public confidence, and the report offers tips clearly drawn from the Covid pandemic: make research findings accessible and explain how they improve people’s lives; do not patronise or talk down; when offering advice, provide sources to allow people to do their own research; don’t present policy trade-offs as “the science”; be transparent about funding; emphasise impartiality and independence from government."}],[{"start":284.09999999999997,"text":"Scientists, global surveys show, still rank among the most trusted people in society but that faith must be earned, not assumed."}],[{"start":297.79999999999995,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1777289419_6645.mp3"}