WASHINGTON: According to a new report published by Pew Research Center, U.S. adults see various science-related topics much differently than do America’s top scientists, with the two groups expressing widely divergent views on the safety of genetically modified foods, climate change, human evolution, the use of animals in research and vaccines.
The report, Public and Scientists’ Views on Science and Society, was based on surveys of a sample of U.S. adults and, separately, a survey of scientists belonging to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS.
The findings were published today by the Pew Center’s Internet, Science & Tech.
According to the report, the public is much less likely to view GM foods as safe to eat than the AAAS scientists (37 percent to 88 percent), even though 67 percent of the nonscientists surveyed acknowledged that they lacked a “clear understanding” of the health effects of GM crops.
Other topics with the widest gaps between the views of scientists and nonscientists include a 40-point gap between the two groups on whether eating food grown with pesticides is safe or not. Only 28 percent of the public believes it is “generally safe” to eat such foods (68 percent say it is “generally unsafe”), as opposed to 68 percent of the scientists who say it is safe (31 percent responding “generally unsafe”).
Should animals be used in scientific research? Half of U.S. adults surveyed said no, a view expressed by only 9 percent of the scientists.
