The workshop will address the growing concerns around trust in science for policy-making, focusing on both public trust and the trust of policymakers. Organized by the International Science Council (ISC) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the workshop brings together leading researchers, scientists, and government actors to explore solutions for fostering trust in scientific advice amidst rising misinformation and political challenges. The discussions will contribute to shaping the future of science for policy within and beyond the European Union.
Sir Peter Gluckman, ISC President, opened the workshop today highlighting the growing distrust in science, driven by misinformation, political polarization, and poor communication. He emphasized the need to distinguish science from other knowledge systems, acknowledging past scientific harms, and called for scientists to act as honest brokers to rebuild trust in science-informed policy-making.
I was struck the other day by a comment made by an extreme right wing American commentator1 who said “ I am not a flat-earther. I am not a round -earther. Actually, what I am is somebody who has left the cult of science”. These words have many implications. They represent an extreme example of the issues we are here to discuss. They serve as a reminder that while we may see as self-evident that science is the best way of understanding the observable world, trust in what science is, while critical, is under challenge. And we would be foolish to reject this kind of statement as a purely American disease or to argue that it is not a generic issue. Irrespective of the number of personally distrust science, their influence is such that they s clearly impact on how societies make decisions on many matters even if the actual number of distrusters is segmented – but it is growing not diminishing in size. As Evans and Collins pointed out in their book Why democracies need science, a key role of science in democracies is to position help societies to make better decisions.
It seems worthwhile to start by reminding ourselves what science is: An organized system of knowledge – one based on observation and experimentation. Explanations can only be based on causal reality, logic, and past observations – sometimes called ‘shallow’ explanations. Explanations based on merely subjective and non-empirical considerations, be they from religion or belief or ‘deep’ explanations, are excluded. Claims without quality assessment by formal or informal expert peers should not be considered part of science. These principles, not methods or truths, define science allowing iterative review and progressive modification of knowledge as new observations are made and incorporated. It is these principles that make science universal. Crucially they apply everywhere and across all cultures.
Science is distinctive in its principles allowing science to provide the most reliable and inclusive way to understand the universe and the world around and within us.
But there is potential danger. As Clark, Pinker and others wrote2:
The fundamental principle of science is that evidence — not authority, tradition, rhetorical eloquence, or social prestige — should triumph. This commitment makes science a radical force in society: challenging and disrupting sacred myths, cherished beliefs, and socially desirable narratives. Consequently, science exists in tension with other institutions, occasionally provoking hostility and censorship.
This is not exclusive to one extreme end of the political spectrum; we have seen it previously in the postmodernist and relativistic arguments about the validity of science.
We must however distinguish what is science from the scientific systems that evolved to produce or use science3. The latter vary enormously and are influenced by context, culture, and motive. They include the institutions that fund, teach, publish science, higher education, and research institutions; they include the defence and private sectors and other components of civil society. Here we must be honest and acknowledge that institutionalized science has contributed both good and bad and has its own power dynamics.
But science is not the only knowledge system people use. In their daily lives people apply and combine a variety of knowledge systems, including those that define their identity, values, and worldviews; these may be local, indigenous, religious, cultural, or occupational in origin. Science will be more likely to be used when scientists acknowledge its limits and understand that for science to be trusted and best used, they must allow that other knowledge systems often play a role in how we live and society makes decisions.
We are concerned with some somewhat overlapping and inter-related elements when we talk about trust in science. Let me list my own idiosyncratic taxonomy of factors to consider.
Clearly in America and other so-called liberal democracies the alignment of science with political affiliation is most acute. Climate change science has been suggested as a precipitant. But there are also deeper issues. As Schoufele is recently quoted5:
Science relies on the public perception that it creates knowledge objectively and in a politically neutral way. The moment we lose that aspect of trust, we just become one of the many institutions ,.., that have suffered from rapidly eroding levels of public trust.
But the question remains. Can we dislocate a fall in trust in science from general decline in institutional trust. The parallel in trendlines suggests it would be hard. But given it has maintained a higher trust level relative to other elites, it may be possible. Much of my group’s more recent work is on factors affecting social and institutional trust in the context of discussing social cohesion6. We cannot ignore the issues of inequality and exclusion in undermining institutional trust.
And now because of the ease of social media and the business model of influencers, disinformation is also used as a form of disruptive entertainment.
We seem to have gone beyond selective acceptance of science – that of green movements who would accept climate change but reject genetic modification or the conservative right who would accept GM and not climate change to now broad rejection of the ‘cult of science.’
So for the bulk of dis-informers, is it now simply that one tool in demonstrating loyalty to the identify group (united by interests or emotion) – to undermine anything that lies outside the group? Conspiracy theories and distrust, identity fusion and polarization go hand in hand. Social media have expedited all of these elements and magnified their effect and impact.
As the next raft of technologies is emerging at a destabilizing rate and largely without any regulatory control, what will Artificial Intelligence, synthetic biology and quantum bring, at least in raising societal fears. And fears are the fuel of affective polarization and the shift towards autocracy.
We are here because we bring different expertise to these and other perspectives I have not considered, and because we agree a loss of trust in modern science must limit the use of science in collective decision making, and that must ultimately harm society and prevent progress.
I look forward to a lively meeting and thank the JRC for their hospitality.
The two-day workshop will consider the following questions:
The workshop also aims to consider what kind of future engagement the ISC may have on topic of the science of trust.
Image by Terry Johnston on Flickr