Scientists are...

[squishykat]

I was just reading through my friends page and came across the latest offering from Bad Astronomy, 'Scientists are...' (http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/12/04/search_engine_bias_scientists_are.html). In this article Phil Plait is worrying about the bad rep scientists seem to have via Google search autocomplete

Comments

[rthstewart]

It is true that the anti-science trend in US public policy is very troubling. And the level of science reporting and literacy are both very poor. But then a sizable portion of the US population believes Jesus of Nazareth could have ridden a dinosaur.

BTW, "tech support is it a toaster" and Doctors are arrogant, stupid, rude, overpaid, and dangerous. OTOH, Nurse are angels and heroes (you get overpaid, annoying, and fat further down).

[squishykat]

I admit, most of the studies I got my data from are UK specific and I don't know so much about the perception of scientists and science in the US. It is quite a frightening thought that people really have an anti-science attitude like that.

'Is it a toaster' I wonder what leads to that question being asked!

[spangielka]

Authors are rockstars, dead and crazy, but also listed alphabetically
At least there's that! Really, this sentence is pure gold.

I don't think this kind of test reflects anything at all in reality, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. And the way I see it, scientist are usually perceived more favorably than many other groups. Even though it's not uncommon for scientists to detract from other groups' merit; I can't count (ha!) how many times I've heard from scientists that humanists are just people too stupid to comprehend math.

[squishykat]

Haha yeah that made me laugh too.

I guess that was part of my point, that this isn't really a helpful measure of opinion and it's not particularly helpful to be drawing attention in this way.

And yes, I've heard the attitude that non-scientists can't understand far too many times for comfort too, which really makes me feel kind of sad!

Certainly in the UK scientists occupy quite a privileged position in society. An ipsos mori poll carried out a couple of years ago says that although people don't think they know much about what scientists do, they still trust them to be working for the betterment of society. Our government too wants to be seen as supporting science and technology, as recently shown in a budget speech.