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Causal or spurious? The relationship between knowledge, attitudes, and trust in science and technology

  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
  • Survey data on 1217 adults living in Alberta, Canada were collected by Ipsos Reid Public Affairs and made available to us for analysis. The survey questioned participants on issues related to science including their perceived knowledge of science, attitudes toward science, and trust in science and technology. We developed a structural equation model to account for the causal relations implied by the correlations among the variables in the data set. Results show that trust in generalized science and technology is a large determiner of trust in specific technologies, but that trust in specific technologies is not a determinant of overall trust in science and technology. We also found that attitudes towards science have an effect on trust in generalized science and technology whereas perceived knowledge does not. Education and gender contribute to attitudes supporting an increased personal attachment to science, which was the strongest predictor of trust in our model.

  • Date created
    2013
  • Subjects / Keywords
  • Type of Item
    Article (Published)
  • DOI
    https://doi.org/10.7939/R3S46HM4V
  • License
    © 2013 SAGE Publications. This version of this article is open access and can be downloaded and shared. The original author(s) and source must be cited.
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  • Citation for previous publication
    • Roberts, M. R., Schroeder, M., Reid, G., & Norris, S. P. (2013). Causal or spurious? The relationship between knowledge, attitudes, and trust in science and technology. Public Understanding of Science, 22(5), 624-641. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662511420511
  • Link to related item
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662511420511