Report: America’s Trust in Scientists Drops in Wake of COVID-19 Pandemic

Public trust in scientists fell again in 2023 even as COVID-19 has faded into the background for many Americans, according to a new report.

Survey results from Pew Research Center published on Tuesday found that confidence in scientists to act in the public’s best interest fell from 77% in 2022 to 73% as of last month. It’s a far drop from 87% in April 2020, which quickly declined to 84% by November 2020 as the pandemic worsened.

The share of Americans who report having a “great deal” of confidence in scientists also continues to decline, dropping from 39% in April 2020 to 23% in October.

Those with little or little to no confidence in scientists have, perhaps not surprisingly, increased since the pandemic. The report found that 27% of U.S. adults fall into the category, which is up from 12% in April 2020.

The decline in trust in scientists is particularly prominent among Republicans, according to the survey. Nearly 4 in 10 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say they have not too much or no confidence at all in scientists to act in the public’s best interests. It’s a large jump from the 14% of Republicans who felt the same way in April 2020.

Views among Democrats have shifted slightly, but not on the same scale as their counterparts across the aisle. The share of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents who express high levels of trust in scientists is down from a high of 55% in November 2020 to 37% last month. However, a large majority of Democrats report some level of confidence in scientists.

“The overall differences in partisan views remain much more pronounced today than they were prior to the coronavirus outbreak,” the report states.

While overall trust in scientists has declined, it is generally one of the more trusted professions, according to the survey. It joins two other categories – medical scientists and the military – as the top three trusted professions. America’s confidence in journalists, business leaders and elected officials rank the three lowest categories. Notably, trust in every profession included in the survey has declined since early 2020.

The survey of more than 8,800 U.S. adults was conducted from late September to early October.