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Public Attitudes and Understanding

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Public Attitudes and Understanding National Science Board | Science & Engineering Indicators 2018 7 | 1 CHAPTER 7 Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Understanding Table of Contents Highlights................................................................................................................................................................................. 7-3 Interest, Information Sources, and Involvement .............................................................................................................. 7-3 Public Knowledge about S&T............................................................................................................................................... 7-3 Public Attitudes about S&T in General ............................................................................................................................... 7-4 Public Attitudes about Specific S&T-Related Issues.......................................................................................................... 7-4 Introduction............................................................................................................................................................................. 7-5 Chapter Overview ................................................................................................................................................................. 7-5 Chapter Organization......................................................................................................................................................... 7-10 A Note about Data and Terminology................................................................................................................................ 7-10 Interest, Information Sources, and Involvement ............................................................................................................. 7-23 Public Interest in S&T ......................................................................................................................................................... 7-23 S&T Information Sources ................................................................................................................................................... 7-27 Involvement......................................................................................................................................................................... 7-32 Public Knowledge about S&T............................................................................................................................................... 7-33 Understanding Scientific Terms and Concepts ............................................................................................................... 7-34 Reasoning and Understanding the Scientific Process.................................................................................................... 7-47 Pseudoscience..................................................................................................................................................................... 7-50 Perceived Understanding of Scientific Research............................................................................................................. 7-50 Public Attitudes about S&T in General............................................................................................................................... 7-52 Perceived Promise of and Reservations about S&T ....................................................................................................... 7-52 Federal Funding of Scientific Research ............................................................................................................................ 7-55 Confidence in the Science Community’s Leadership ..................................................................................................... 7-61 Public Attitudes about Specific S&T-Related Issues ......................................................................................................... 7-68 Environment ........................................................................................................................................................................ 7-72 Climate Change ................................................................................................................................................................... 7-76 Energy................................................................................................................................................................................... 7-81 Genetically Engineered Food............................................................................................................................................. 7-85 Nanotechnology.................................................................................................................................................................. 7-86 Stem Cell Research and Cloning ....................................................................................................................................... 7-88 Animal Research ................................................................................................................................................................. 7-89 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................................. 7-90 Glossary ................................................................................................................................................................................. 7-91 Definitions............................................................................................................................................................................ 7-91 Key to Acronyms and Abbreviations................................................................................................................................. 7-91 References ............................................................................................................................................................................. 7-92 List of Sidebars U.S. Survey Data Sources .............................................................................................................................................................. 7-12 National Science Board | Science & Engineering Indicators 2018 7 | 2 International Survey Data Sources .............................................................................................................................................. 7-16 Testing Alternative Wording of the Big Bang and Evolution Questions .................................................................................. 7-39 Race, Ethnicity, and Factual Science Knowledge ........................................................................................................................ 7-41 The Relationship between General and Specific Attitudes about S&T.................................................................................... 7-69 Americans’ Attitudes toward Information Privacy in the World of Big Data........................................................................... 7-71 List of Tables Table 7-A U.S. survey data sources ...................................................................................................................................... 7-13 Table 7-B International survey data sources ...................................................................................................................... 7-17 Table 7-1 Percentage of correct answers to factual knowledge questions in physical and biological sciences, by region or country: Most recent year ............................................................................................. 7-44 Table 7-2 Correct answers to scientific process questions: Selected years, 1999–2016............................................... 7-48 List of Figures Figure 7-1 Key science and engineering knowledge and attitude indicators: 1981–2016 ............................................... 7-7 Figure 7-2 Key science and engineering indicators, by selected respondent education, sex, and age: 2016.......................................................................................................................................................................... 7-8 Figure 7-3 Public interest in selected issues: 2016.............................................................................................................. 7-25 Figure 7-4 Public interest in selected science-related issues: 1981–2016........................................................................ 7-26 Figure 7-5 Primary source respondents used to learn about current news events, science and technology, and specific scientific issues: 2016 ................................................................................................ 7-28 Figure 7-6 Primary source respondents used to learn about current news events, science and technology, and specific scientific issues: 2001–16 .......................................................................................... 7-30 Figure 7-7 Mean number of correct answers to trend factual knowledge of science scale: 1992–2016...................... 7-35 Figure 7-8 Correct answers to trend factual knowledge of science scale, by respondent characteristic: 2016..............................................................................................................................................
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