Trust in scientists and their role in society across 68 countries

Authors: Viktoria Cologna, Niels G. Mede, Sebastian Berger, John C. Besley, Cameron Brick, Marina Joubert, Edward Maibach, Sabina Mihelj, Наоми Орескес, Mike S. Schäfer, Sander van der Linden, Nor Izzatina Abdul Aziz, Suleiman Abiodun Abdulsalam, Nurulaini Abu Shamsi, Balázs Aczél, Indro Adinugroho, Eleonora Alabrese, Alaa Aldoh, Mark Alfano, Innocent Mbulli Ali, Mohammed Alsobay, Marlene Sophie Altenmüller, R. Michael Alvarez, Richard Amoako, Tabitha Amollo, Patrick Ansah, Denisa Apriliawati, Flávio Azevedo, Ani Bajrami, Ronita Bardhan, Keagile Bati, Eri Bertsou, Cornelia Betsch, Apurav Yash Bhatiya, Rahul Bhui, Olga Białobrzeska, Michał Bilewicz, Ayoub Bouguettaya, Katherine Breeden, Amélie Bret, Ondrej Buchel, Pablo Cabrera‐Álvarez, Federica Cagnoli, André Calero Valdez, Timothy Callaghan, Rizza Kaye Cases, Sami Çoksan, Gabriela Czarnek, Steven De Peuter, Ramit Debnath, Sylvain Delouvée, Lucia Di Stefano, Celia Díaz‐Catalán, Kimberly C Doell, Simone Dohle, Karen M. Douglas, Charlotte Dries, Dmitrii Dubrov, Małgorzata Dzimińska, Ullrich K. H. Ecker, Christian T. Elbaek, Mahmoud Medhat Elsherif, Benjamin Enke, Tom Étienne, Matthew Facciani, Antoinette Fage‐Butler, Md. Zaki Faisal, Xiaoli Fan, Christina E. Farhart, Christoph Feldhaus, Marinus Ferreira, Stefan Feuerriegel, Helen Fischer, Jana Freundt, Malte Friese, Simon Fuglsang, Albina Gallyamova, Patricia Garrido‐Vásquez, Mauricio E. Garrido Vásquez, Winfred Gatua, Oliver Genschow, Omid Ghasemi, Theofilos Gkinopoulos, Jamie L. Gloor, Ellen Goddard, Mario Gollwitzer, Claudia N. González-Brambila, Hazel Gordon, Dmitry Grigoryev, Gina M. Grimshaw, Lars Guenther, Håvard Haarstad, Dana Harari, Lelia N. Hawkins, Przemysław Hensel, Alma Cristal Hernández‐Mondragón, Atar Herziger, Guanxiong Huang, Markus Huff, Mairéad Hurley, Nygmet Ibadildin, Maho Ishibashi, Mohammad Tarikul Islam, Younes Jeddi, Tao Jin, Charlotte Jones, Sebastian Jungkunz, Dominika Jurgiel, Zhangir Kabdulkair, Jo-Ju Kao, Sarah Kavassalis, John R. Kerr, Mariana Kitsa, Tereza Klabíková Rábová, Olivier Klein, Hoyoun Koh, Aki Koivula, Lilian Kojan, Elizaveta Komyaginskaya, Laura M König, Lina Koppel, Kochav Koren Nobre Cavalcante, Alexandra I. Kosachenko, John Kotcher, Laura Kranz, Pradeep Krishnan, Silje Kristiansen, André Krouwel, Toon Kuppens, Eleni Α. Kyza, Claus Lamm, Anthony Lantian, Aleksandra Lazić, Óscar Lecuona, Jean‐Baptiste Légal, Zoe Leviston, Neil Levy, Amanda M. Lindkvist, Grégoire Lits, Andreas Löschel, Alberto López Ortega, Carlos Lopez-Villavicencio, Nigel Mantou Lou, Chloe Lucas, Kristin Lunz Trujillo, Mathew D. Marques, Sabrina Jasmin Mayer, Ryan McKay, Hugo Mercier, Julia Metag, Taciano L. Milfont, Joanne M. Miller, Panagiotis Mitkidis, Fredy Monge-Rodríguez, Matt Motta, Iryna Mudra, Zarja Muršič, Jennifer Namutebi, Eryn J. Newman, Jonas P. Nitschke, Ntui-Njock Vincent Ntui, Daniel Nwogwugwu, Thomas Ostermann, Tobias Otterbring, Jaime L. Palmer‐Hague, Myrto Pantazi, Philip Pärnamets, Paolo Parra Saiani, Mariola Paruzel‐Czachura, Michał Parzuchowski, Yuri G. Pavlov, Adam R. Pearson, Myron A. Penner, Charlotte R. Pennington, Katerina Petkanopoulou, Marija Petrović, Jan Pfänder, Dinara Pisareva, Adam Płoszaj, Karolína Poliaková, Ekaterina Pronizius, Katarzyna Pypno‐Blajda, Diwa Malaya Aldana Quiñones, Pekka Räsänen, Adrian Rauchfleisch, Felix G. Rebitschek, Cintia Refojo Seronero, Gabriel Gaudencio do Rêgo, James P. Reynolds, Joseph Roche, Simone Rödder, Jan Philipp Röer, Robert M. Ross, Isabelle Ruin, Osvaldo Santos, Ricardo R. Santos, Philipp Schmid, Stefan Schulreich, Bermond Scoggins, Amena Sharaf, Justin Sheria Nfundiko, Emily Shuckburgh, Johan Six, Nevin Solak, Leonhard Späth, Bram Spruyt, Olivier Standaert, Samantha K. Stanley, Gert Storms, Noel Strahm, Stylianos Syropoulos, Barnabás Szászi, Ewa Szumowska, Mikihito Tanaka, Claudia Teran‐Escobar, Boryana Todorova, Abdoul Kafid Toko, Renata Tokrri, Daniel Toribio‐Flórez, Manos Tsakiris, Michael Tyrala, Özden Melis Uluğ, Ijeoma Chinwe Uzoma, Jochem van Noord, Christiana Varda, Steven Verheyen, Iris Vilares, Madalina Vlasceanu, Andreas von Bubnoff, Iain Walker, Izabela Warwas, Marcel Weber, Tim Weninger, Mareike Westfal, Florian Wintterlin, Adrian Dominik Wójcik, Ziqian Xia, Jinliang Xie, Ewa Zegler-Poleska, Amber Zenklusen, Rolf A. Zwaan - Nature Human Behaviour 2025 cited by 222

Science is crucial for evidence-based decision-making. Public trust in scientists can help decision makers act on the basis of the best available evidence, especially during crises. However, in recent years the epistemic authority of science has been challenged, causing concerns about low public trust in scientists. We interrogated these concerns with a preregistered 68-country survey of 71,922 respondents and found that in most countries, most people trust scientists and agree that scientists should engage more in society and policymaking. We found variations between and within countries, which we explain with individual- and country-level variables, including political orientation. While there is no widespread lack of trust in scientists, we cannot discount the concern that lack of trust in scientists by even a small minority may affect considerations of scientific evidence in policymaking. These findings have implications for scientists and policymakers seeking to maintain and increase trust in scientists.