Browning paper looks at trust in science, religion
Assistant professor Nicholas Browning’s paper, “For Some, Scientists Aren’t The Authority on Science,” has received media attention even before its publication date in the journal Public Understanding of Science.
NPR addressed the ideas in the paper in a broadcast Nov. 28. It is available online to subscribers at the journal’s website.
The article focuses on how the public trusts scientific and religious authorities for information about the risks and benefits of science. Browning and his co-writers used data from a survey of American adults to apply a regression analysis to analyze the data.
Browning’s collaborators are Michael Cacciatore of the University of Georgia; Deitram Scheufele, Dominque Brossard and Michael Xenos, University of Wisconsin; and Elizabeth Corley of Arizona State.
The team found that evangelical Christians are more trusting of religious authority figures to speak about science and technology and slightly less trusting than non-evangelicals when it comes to hearing information about science from scientific authorities. They also found that evangelicals use mediated information and science knowledge differently from non-evangelicals.
Browning’s research focuses on ethics, corporate social responsibility, reputation management and political communication.