Dommett, K. orcid.org/0000-0003-0624-6610 and Pearce, W. orcid.org/0000-0001-6884-3854 (2019) What do we know about public attitudes towards experts? Reviewing survey data in the United Kingdom and European Union. Public Understanding of Science, 28 (6). pp. 669-678. ISSN 0963-6625
Abstract
Recent developments in contemporary politics have cast doubt on the status of expertise and led to the oft-repeated claim that the public have had enough of experts. In response, we review existing survey measures on experts and expertise in the European Union and United Kingdom with three main findings. First, there is insufficient survey data available to strongly support any claims regarding public attitudes to experts. Second, the evidence that does exist suggests broadly positive public attitudes towards experts, rather than the somewhat bleak commentary associated with descriptions of a 'post-truth' era. Third, there is scope for survey questions to provide improved macro-level descriptions of some of the attributes and expectations associated with experts, and that concepts from the academic literature can provide structure for such questions. Survey data has the potential to complement more granular, qualitative approaches as part of an interpretive social science approach.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 The Author(s). This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Public Understanding of Science. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Brexit; interaction of experts and publics; interpretive social science; opinion polls; opinion surveys; public opinion of experts; public understanding of science; science experts |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Politics and International Relations (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 12 Jun 2019 08:29 |
Last Modified: | 13 May 2021 16:15 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/0963662519852038 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:147232 |
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