People with more extreme attitudes towards science have self-confidence in their understanding of science, even if this is not justified.

ABSTRACT: People differ greatly in their attitudes towards well-evidenced science. What characterises this variation? Here, we consider this issue in the context of genetics and allied sciences. While most prior research has focused on the relationship between attitude to science and what people know about it, recent evidence suggests that individuals with strongly negative attitudes towards specific genetic technologies (genetic modification (GM) technology and vaccines) commonly do not objectively understand the science, but, importantly, believe that they do. Here, using data from a probability survey of United Kingdom adults, we extend this prior work in 2 regards. First, we ask whether people with more extreme attitudes, be they positive or negative, are more likely to believe that they underst

SUBMITTER: Fonseca C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10045565 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature