EUROPEAN PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF SCIENCE

In this paper we explore the relationships between public interest in, knowledge of, and attitudes towards science and technology and the level of industrialization in 12 countries of the European Community. Using the 1989 Eurobarometer survey no 31 (N = 11,678), we constructed four scales measuring interest, knowledge, general attitudes to science, and support for EC funded science for each of the 12 EC countries. We found that overall factual scientific knowledge correlates moderately positively with interest and attitudes to science. For example the Netherlands and Great Britain have relatively high levels of knowledge, interest, and support for science in general. Spain and Greece have relatively low levels of knowledge, interest, and support for science in general. However, the simple correlation hides more complex relationships. First, the variance within and across countries of knowledge, attitudes and interest increases with national levels of knowledge. This indicates greater degrees of polarization of both support and interest. Second, the data indicates a post-industrialism effect: knowledge, interest in, and attitudes to science show a curvilinear relationship with levels of industrialization. The decline of interest in science and the less positive attitudes in highly developed countries requires further exploration. Third, we found, that the consistency of the knowledge and the attitude measures declines as the national level of knowledge increases. We suggest that this reflects a knowledge-ignorance paradox and knowledge specialization among informed populations. Support for EC level science follows a different pattern. We found that France, Italy, and Spain show high levels of support for EC level science. This is not the case in Great Britain and Germany. The pattern suggests that attitudes towards EC science are formed on the basis of national level scientific strength: if the national science base is strong, EC science initiatives find less support and vice versa. These findings represent a first step towards a comparative assessment of public understanding of science in EC countries.